


Wherever You Go, I'm Always Around

by rhimes_or_shotts



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Based on the movie One Small Hitch, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Mutual Pining, fake engagement
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-27
Updated: 2015-09-27
Packaged: 2018-04-23 14:34:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 25,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4880518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhimes_or_shotts/pseuds/rhimes_or_shotts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After finding out about his mother's fatal diagnosis, Bellamy Blake convinces his little sister's best friend, Clarke Griffin, to fake an engagement. Shenanigans ensue.</p><p>There is some minor Finn/Clarke and Lexa/Clarke as well as Bellamy/Roma and Bellamy/Echo in here in case that's something you want to avoid.</p><p>Based off the movie One Small Hitch (2013).  In fact, since this is fan fiction and I think it's okay in fan fiction, some of the dialogue is taken directly from the movie.  But, I've also changed the parts of the movie that I don't like.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wherever You Go, I'm Always Around

**Author's Note:**

> Title based on Stockholm by Brian McSweeney (from the One Small Hitch soundtrack)

Clarke frowns at herself in the mirror. _The dress isn’t so bad_ , she considers as she looks down at the gown. Not really her color but then again, it isn’t her wedding. You would think, though, that the traditional expectation of the bridesmaid not looking as good as the bride wouldn’t apply when the bride was your mother. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as she thought. _Better go and show my roommates and get their opinion_ , she thinks as she opens the bathroom door.

Clarke steps out of the bathroom and does a little twirl. “So, uh, you know, just be honest.” she says, hoping that it isn’t as bad as she initially thought. Peaking over her shoulder at Monroe and Harper she sees the desperate looks on their faces as they try to think of something nice to say.

“Maybe it’s always a bridesmaid never a bride because of the dresses?” Monroe says, hopefully.

“Is it really that bad?” Clarke groans and she looks down again at the maroon monstrosity.

“Have fun at the prom!” chirps Harper as she looks over at Monroe and then the two burst out laughing.

“Well, thanks.” Clarke grumbles as she turns back into the bathroom.

“Hey, what’s Finn wearing?” Monroe calls after her.

“I don’t what Finn is wearing. He’s not walking me down the aisle” she shouts from the bathroom.

_Bum da ba um, ba da ba bum_

Clarkes looks around confused before her eyes settle on her cell phone on the shelf.  
  
“Why is Mendelssohn’s Wedding March programmed in as my ring tone?” she asks accusatorily as she storms out of the bathroom.

Monroe and Harper just look at each other again and break out into another round of laughter. Clarke looks down to check the message: “Shit, Finn’s here.” She runs back into the bathroom. Damn it, she isn’t even done packing.

Clarke sprints out of the bathroom, now back in her traveling outfit, a cute red number that compliments rather than contrasts with her rosy undertone. As she’s grabbing last minute items from around the apartment, Monroe asks her “Clarke, what did you tell your mom about Finn?”

“Nothing” she answers, “I just told them I was bringing home a mystery man and that’s it.”

“So they don’t know that he’s in a band? Harper asks, adding “As if that’s what you could call the Spacewalkers” under her breath so that only Monroe can hear.

“No, they don’t even know that he’s a musician.

“Oh, well, I’m sure that they’ll love his demo” Harper smirks and yet again, she and Harper start another round of giggling.

“Alright, you know what?” Clarke contends “I was just hoping that Finn and I could just spend some time alone this weekend and my mom could get to know the Finn Collins that I have come to know and love.”

“Fine, fine” they call after her as she drags her bag out the door of their apartment. “Have fun!”

Clarke pulls the door shut behind her. “Alright” she says to herself “let’s do this” and heads towards the stairs. Why couldn’t Finn have come to the door and helped carry her bags, she wonders begrudgingly as she hauls her things down the three flights. Positive thoughts, she reminds herself and opens the door to the LA sun.

* * *

45 minutes later and they pull up to the drop-off lane at LAX. Clarke looks over and smiles at Finn. “Door to door service” he proclaims with a stupid grin on his face. OK, she thinks to herself, maybe he’s trying to make up for not helping her with her luggage at the apartment. It’s not like she can blame him for trying to avoid Harper and Monroe. He leans over, pressing a quick kiss to lips before he pulls back and smiles again. “You know you love me.” She looks over at him and smiles as he opens the door.

She gets out of the car as he bustles around to the back, opening the truck and pulling out the bags.

_Bum da ba um, ba da ba bum_

“Is that your cell?” Finn asks, looking up at her as he drops the bags at her feet. “Oh shit” she says, blushing as she pulls it from her purse, “It’s my best friend!” she says over her shoulder as she clicks accept.

“Hey Octavia!”

She pulls the phone away from her ear as she hears Octavia scream her name in excitement.

“CLARKE! I’m so excited that you’ll be here tonight! I’ve missed you. Lincoln’s missed you. Kai has missed you!”

“Kai hasn’t met me and he doesn’t even have object permanence yet, Octavia.” She says, smiling into the phone. Besides being the maid of honor in her mother’s wedding tomorrow, her primary reason for traveling home is to see her best friend and her newborn son.

“Stop spouting your fancy med school knowledge at me.” Octavia counters. “What time are you getting in with your mystery man? I can’t believe you haven’t told me anything about him.”

Clarkes rolls her eyes, glad that Octavia can’t see her through the phone. Her best friend has been pestering her for weeks, ever since Clarke’s mom let it slip that Clarke would be bringing a boy to the wedding. Let it slip, hah, she thinks. Her mom probably called Octavia the minute she had hung up the phone.

“We get in at midnight” she replies. She hears Octavia huff in frustration. “I know your plane is supposed to get in at midnight, I meant what time are you coming over to our house? Oh, and your flight is delayed. Have you seen Bellamy yet?

Clarke laughs, trying to follow her friend’s thoughts as she jumps from topic to topic. “No, I haven’t seen Bellamy yet. And wait, what, our flight’s delayed?”

“Yeah” Octavia replies, clearly exasperated “You won’t get in until 3 AM. I’m normally up feeding Kai around 4 so you can just swing by.”

Clarke chuckles. Stopping by for the 4 AM feeding of her godson had not really been on her list of things to do but she did miss Octavia and was really excited about finally meeting Kai. “OK, O!” She says “We’ll see if we can stop by but for now I’ve got to go. Love you.”

“Love you too” she hears Octavia sing as she pulls the phone from her ear and ends the call, immediately pulling up the Southwest airlines app to check on the status of their flight.

“Finn?!” she hears someone say and looks up to see an attractive man with light skin and dark brown hair looking at them with a confused expression.

“Oh, hey Sterling.” Finn replies, his voice wobbling a bit. “Whatcha doing here?”

“Just dropping off Mel’s mom” the man replies.

“Alone?” Finn asks hopefully. A look of panic enters his eyes as he hears Mel call Sterling’s name.

“Is that you, Finn?” she asks, coming to stand next to Sterling.

“Yes, it’s me alright.” Finn mumbles.

Clarke peers over at Finn, wondering why his already pale shade has now ghosted out to almost pure white. Well, she thinks, if he isn’t going to introduce her to this couple that he’s told her numerous stories about, she’ll just introduce herself.

“Hey, are you Mel and Sterling? I’m Clarke! ” she says, waving her hand. “It’s so good to finally meet you.”

“Uh, you too.” Sterling stumbles, grabbing Mel’s hand and pulling her away. “Honey, we’ve got to get going.”

“Wait a minute” Mel says as she sneaks out of her husband’s grasp. “Are you a friend of Raven’s?”

“Who’s Raven” Clarke asks, a bit intimidated as Mel stomps towards her.

“HIS fiancée!?!” She spats at Clarke.

Clarke turns around and sees Finn with his head in his hands. Quickly she grabs her bags and pushes past Mel and Sterling, mumbling apologies at them. She’s running through the doors as Finn starts to pursue her.

“Clarke, CLARKE, wait a second!” Finn calls to her.

“What, so you can come up with a fresh new lie?” Clarke cries over her shoulder as she pushes on.

“Ok, I deserve that. But can we just talk about this?” He pleads.

“No, we can’t just talk about this.” Clarke yells as she spins towards him. “I was taking you to meet my family. I trusted you.”

“It’s a long story. I wasn’t sure if she was still in the picture.”

Clarke scoffs at him. “OH MY GOD” she screams, then adds deflatedly, “why didn’t you just tell me the truth from the beginning?”

“Well then you never would have slept with me” Finn says with a shoulder shrug, not noticing the tension coiling within Clarke. She stares at him for another second before dropping her bags, grabbing his shoulders, and heaving her knee straight into his gonads. “Your music sucks” she spats as she grabs her bags and turns to flee into the airport. She throws herself into the first restroom she can find, sure that even if he had recovered enough to follow her, he won’t barge into the women’s room.

She heaves her bags into the stall with her and sits down, dropping her head into her hands as hot tears start to stream down her face. _Oh god, what is happening to me_ , she wonders _, how did I ever get into this situation? How did I become not only the other woman but the girl who is crying over a boy in a bathroom stall. Griffin, you’re better than this_ , she tells herself, not quite believing it as the tears continue to roll. She continues to sob for several minutes, failing to hear the door to the bathroom opening until she hears a woman’s voice asking “Are you OK in there?”

Standing quickly and wiping the wetness from her face, she calls out “I’m fine” and turns to flush the toilet in a thinly veiled attempt to pretend that she wasn’t in the stall entirely to fall apart over some boy. She grabs her bags and leaves the stall, keeping her head down so that the woman can’t see her reddened eyes. _Oh, who am I kidding_ , she thinks and looks up, giving the woman a weak smile. Then the tears begin to flow down her face again.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” the woman offers and Clarke just shakes her head. Biting at her lower lip, she just says “boy problems” and then falls apart all over again, not just because of Finn but because, god, did she just tell a stranger that she was this weak. Turning to look at herself in the mirror, she sees that her mascara has created channels down her face and a new round of tears well up in her eyes.

“Hey, hey, don’t worry” the woman says assuredly. “We’ve all been there. Well, I haven’t been there exactly but let me tell you, girls can suck too. Romantic entanglements are just…blergh.” A little smile reaches Clarke’s lips as she looks over at the woman who has turned away and started to tear through her bag. “Here” she says “take these, you need them more than me.” The woman thrusts a quart sized Ziploc full of tiny liquor bottles into Clarke’s hands. Clarke looks down and back up at the woman before stammering “Wait, no, I can’t take these. Thank you but you don’t need to.” The woman shushes her though, insisting she take them and explaining that women need to help out other women. “Just be careful” she says as she dries her hands. “Thanks” Clarke says to her as the woman heads out the door. Clarke pulls out her phone to check the time. She has awhile before she needs to head through security and while her new baggy might be arranged to go through TSA, she didn’t check her bag and needs the one bag allotment for her toiletries. Bottoms up, she thinks as she opens the first bottle. Might as well down them all now.

* * *

Bellamy turns his head to let Roma take his ear between her teeth. As he lets his eyes roll back, his gaze catches the magazines falling out of her purse. 

“What’s that?” He asks, rolling out from underneath her.

“What’s what?” she responds as she tries to pull him back to her.

“Are these wedding magazines? Destination I Do? The Bride Guide? The Hundred Best Weddings?

“Reading material for the plane.” She explains with a glint in her eye.

“It’s not a 36 hour flight to Chicago.” He retorts.

“We’re going to a wedding” She purrs, putting far to much emphasis on the “we” and “wedding”. He turns to stare at her.

“Woah, woah, woah, woah. It’s my mom’s best friend’s wedding.” He says. Suddenly his mouth has gone dry and he closes his mouth and swallows deeply before asking “Roma, what exactly did you think this weekend was about?”

“Come on, Bellamy, I know you invited me to Chicago so I could meet your family. You said last week that you wanted to take things to the next level.”

“Yeah I meant like maybe sleeping the whole night at your house type level. Roma, ummmm uh.”

“Wait, then why the hell would you invite me home with you to a wedding?” She asks.

“Well, I actually didn’t really invite you” he mumbles, rubbing his neck nervously. “I asked if you could get me a discount on Southwest since you work there and you assumed that I was asking you and I just sort of went with it.”

“JUST SORT OF WENT WITH IT?!?!?” BELLAMY BLAKE, DID YOU USE ME FOR MY EMPLOYEE DISCOUNT?” She screams. His bronzed face flushes and she screams “FUCK YOU”, before grabbing her bag and thrusting the magazines back in. “Have a fucking fantastic time in Chicago, you asshole.” She hisses as she slams the door to his apartment shut.

Bellamy looks over at the counter at his ticket. With the measly amount of money he gets from his graduate student stipend, he needed the discount, he tries to justify to himself. And it wasn’t his fault that she got crazy ideas into her head. He wonders if she has the ability to cancel his ticket but shakes the thought out of his head. Even if what he did was really crappy, he didn’t think Roma would sink that low…or at least he hoped she wouldn’t.

His phone begins to vibrate and he grabs it and answers.

“Your taxi for two has arrived” a gruff voice announces on the other end.

“Taxi for one, now” he responds, grabbing his bag. “I’ll be right down.”

* * *

 

Bellamy is sitting at the bar, rubbing his temples, as his phone starts to ring. Looking at the screen he sees a picture of his nephew with the words “World’s Best Sister” scrawled across it.

“Hey O” he mumbles as he answers.

“I’m excited to see you too” he hears her say accusatorily through the phone.

“Sorry, O, I’ve just had a rough day. I’ll tell you all about once I’m there. I AM excited to see you and Kai.”

“And Lincoln!” she says.

“And Lincoln” he adds. He smiles at the thought. He hadn’t been all that happy when his sister had started dating the MMA fighter turned artist but from the beginning, it had been clear that Lincoln loved Octavia with all his being and over the past 4 years, he had come to see the man not only as a friend but as a brother.

“Hey have you seen Clarke yet?” Octavia asks, “I’m DYING to find out more about her mystery man.”

“No, no sign of Clarke.” He says, shaking his head. As he does he catches sight of a new woman at the bar. As he draws his eyes over the tall woman with caramel colored skin and a tight white dress that was leaning over to order a drink, he smirks into the phone as says “But, uh, something else did just pop up on the radar.”

“No!” Octavia calls through the phone. “You have to get on this plane. It’s Abby’s wedding and, and…” Octavia’s voice catches and Bellamy forgets about the woman for a minute.

“What’s wrong, O?” he asks.

“Nothing, nothing. Just, you have to get on that plane” she responds. He thinks he can still hear a hitch in her voice but tries to dismiss it. It’s probably post-pregnancy hormones, he thinks to himself, and then feels a bit guilty. If Octavia knew he’d thought that he would be getting an earful on his misogynic attitude. At least he was capable of catching himself and feeling guilty about it without her pointing it out to him, he thinks.

“Of course” he reassures her. “My flight is delayed three hours though. I’m surprised you didn’t know that.”

“Of course I knew that” she chirps and he thinks that maybe he must have imagined that hint of sadness. This is the Octavia he knows and practically raised. Of course she was tracking his flight, just as he would have been tracking hers if she was flying to see him.

“Love you, O.” He says, smiling into the phone as she responds “We love you too, Uncle Bellamy.” _Uncle_ Bellamy, he’s not sure if he’ll ever get over how that makes his heart swell. He hangs up the phone and looks down the bar again. Seeing the woman he’d been admiring smiling back at him, he thinks, well I do have three hours to spare and grabs his drink and bag before heading towards with a glint in his eye. 

* * *

 

Clarke downs all eight of the bottles in the baggy before leaving the restroom. She then hurries through security, trying to make her way through before the alcohol really hits her system. She manages to get through security without any mishaps though, of course, she has to have her braid patted down. She understands that being a 25 year old, blond woman puts her into the category of most likely to be a drug mule but doesn’t understand how it was always her braid that needs to be patted down.

Now is not the time to figure that out, her alcohol-riddled brain says though and she starts to heads towards her gate. As she reaches the gate she saw a bar. What harm can another drink do, she wonders and steers herself in. It is then that she catches sight of a familiar form: broad-shouldered, tall, and trim, and topped with a mop of dark curls.

“Bellamy” she calls.

He pulls his head away from the woman he’s kissing to see Clarke barreling towards him. He stands just in time to catch her as she swings her arms around him, continuing to call out his name.

“Clarke, this is Sara.” He says as he tries to extract himself from her arms. Pivoting her around, he looks at Sara and says “Clarke is my kid sister’s best friend. She’s going to the same wedding.” Clarke looks up at her and throws her arms around the woman. Bellamy grabs her quickly. “Clarke, can I see you for a sec?” he pleads as he now tries to remove Clarke from Sara. Pulling her away, he settles her down at the other end of the bar. “Are you OK over here?” he asks her, and she nods, wobbling a bit on the stool as the alcohol seems to not only be sloshing around her stomach but also around her brain. “Mmmhmmm” she mumbles as he turns his attention back to Sara.

“Sorry, I don’t know what happened. Now where were we?” He drawls as he forward, letting his lips lightly graze along her neck. 

“Well, we were talking about skipping our flights and getting out of here” she murmurs, lifting his head to plant her lips firmly against his.

“Oh were we?” He whispers into her mouth before slowly opening his eyes. Over her shoulder he sees Clarke has moved and is sitting next to an older man, running her fingers over his bald scalp as she implores him to buy her a drink.

“Shit” he says as he presses his forehead to Sara’s. She looks over her shoulder at Clarke and back at Bellamy. “Yeah, that’s not good” she says regretfully. “You should go take care of that. And hey, here’s my card” she says, turning to open up her purse. She pulls out a card and slides it along with her hand into Bellamy’s back pocket. “Give me a call when you’re back in LA” she says as she lightly presses her lips to his again, pulling away slowly, letting her nails drag along his firm butt as she turns away.

Bellamy lets out a low-pitched growl and reluctantly pulls his eyes from her, turning towards Clarke.

“Come on, Princess” he says as he grabs her arm and pulls her away from the stranger. “We need to get you some coffee.”

He leads her over to one of the tables and lowers her into the seat at he waves at the waiter, mouthing coffee. The waiter nods and he turns his attention back to Clarke.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry you didn’t get laid” she sobs into her coffee.

“It’s OK. I forgive you” he assures her, wondering if he is getting through the alcoholic haze. “Just try to think about something happy, OK? Like, well, you’re going to your mom’s wedding!”

She rolls her eyes at him “Her _second_ wedding.”

“Whatever” he retorts. “Things didn’t go as I expected today, you don’t see me crying about it, do you?

Clarke makes a low grumbling noise and then drops her head to the table: “Just forget it. You wouldn’t understand.”

“Understand what?” He asks. 

“You wouldn’t understand the pressure of being an unmarried woman. Of having to experience all the pressures that society places on women.”

“You’re right” he responds “I haven’t experienced that but I do know what you’re talking about. I hear about this all the time from Octavia and I unfortunately know how the world works. And I can empathize with you.”

“Oh really, can you empathize with finding out that your boyfriend has a fiancé the day you two are leaving to go to your mother’s wedding?”

“Shit, Clarke. Is that why you are so upset? No wonder you’re drunk. You don’t need coffee, you need another drink.”

“Uh huh” she mumbles, lifting her head from her arms. “Whiskey, neat” she says and Bellamy chuckles. “Coming right up” he assures her, trying to catch the waiter’s attention again.

“Ughhhh…I should have known he was married.” Clarke wails, dropping her head to the table once again. “I’m such a loser.”

“No, no, Clarke, you’re not a loser. If anyone is a loser it’s that lying, scumbag, sonofabitch.”

“I know, I know” she says, raising her head.

“If you know, then why are you still crying” he asks as he plucks hair from her face where it had plastered to the wetness from her tears and carefully tucks it behind her ear.

“What is that lying, scumbag, sonofabitch was the best that I can do?”

“Oh, come on Clarke. You know that’s not true. You’re awesome. You’re smart, you’re funny” He pulls her into his chest “You smell good.” He murmurs as she nestles into his chest. He looks down and realizes: “Oh, and now you’re passed out.”

He wraps his arm around Clarke’s shoulders and holds her tighter, breathing in her scent. “You really do smell good” he whispers into her hair. Before he is able to process this new sensation of Clarke nestled against him, his phone begins to ring.

“Hey Mom”

“Don’t hey mom me. You were supposed to be here by now.”

“Yeah, my flight got delayed.”

“So what, you don’t call.”

Looking over at Clarke, he smiles and responds: “I’ve been busy.”

“It takes like 5 seconds to dial. Maybe 15 to send a text.” 

“Mom, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing” she exhales. “It’s just, I thought, I thought you were coming in tonight.”

“You’re a terrible liar”

“I’m not lying, everything’s fine”

“Everything’s fine?!? Ok, Mom, now you’re actually starting to freak me out. Are you going to tell me what’s going on or am I going to have to call O?”

“It’s nothing. I mean, O hasn’t told you has she?”

“Told me what?”

He’s met with silence.

“Mom, told me what? What might Octavia have told me? What’s going on? Tell me now.”

“We’ll talk when you get here.”

“No, Mom, listen to me. Tell me what’s going on. Is something wrong with Octavia? With Kai?!?”

“No, no, it’s just…I have cancer. It’s terminal.”

There’s a long period of silence before Bellamy finally responds “Oh my god, Mom. How long have you known?”

“About a month.”

“A month, Mom? And you didn’t call me?”

“You had school. I didn’t want you to worry until I’d had all my appointments and gotten a second opinion and everything.”

“Jesus, Mom, I just…school are not that important compared to this. And what do you mean, terminal?”

“The doctors say that I have about six months. And yes, that’s what the second and third opinion doctors say as well. It’s about quality of life now, not quantity. And that means that to me, yes, your finals are important because I am so proud of you for pursuing your PhD. You can’t even imagine how much proud of you I am. To tell you the truth, I only have one regret, it would have been nice to have met the woman that would one day become your wife.”

“Oh Mom” he cries into the phone. As he drops his head, he smells the sharp, clean scent of Clarke again and looks over at her. She has fallen asleep with her head on the table and without stopping himself, he says “What if…what if I told you that you already had?” 

* * *

 

Clarke slowly peels her eyes open, wincing at even the low lights of the dimmed cabin. As she becomes aware of her surroundings she realizes that her head is resting on her neighbor’s shoulder and that there is a weight on her head that she can only assume is her neighbor’s head resting on hers. She breathes in and _Bellamy_ , she sighs before jerking herself up with the realization that she recognized Bellamy from his scent alone.

Bellamy feels her jerk and raises his head from hers. As she attempts to straighten she feels the kink in her neck and the hangover comes flooding over her.

“I wanted a window seat” she mumbles as she tries to sit up straight. 

“Yeah well I wanted to fly without my kid sister’s best friend slobbering all over me.” He retorts.

She scoffs: “Oh wow, you are very grumpy. I thought I was the one having the shitty day here with my boyfriend having a fiancée and…”

“My mom has terminal cancer” he blurts out, derailing Clarke’s train of thought.

“What?!?”

“Yeah. She called me while you were asleep. She has six months.” He thought that saying it out loud would help him process it but, no, this isn’t helping.

“Bellamy. I’m so sorry.” She says softly, reaching over to place her hand on his. “Um…hey, um, if you need anything, alright, you know I’m here.”

“Really?” He asks and as she looks at him, she sees the desperation in his eyes.

“Of course, Bellamy. We’re practically family. I’d do practically anything for you, you know that right?”

“I know, and I…well, actually, I might need your help with this one thing.”

“Of course” she assures him. “Anything. What can I do?”

“Well when I was talking to my mom she was talking about how proud she is of me and how her only regret is that she wasn’t going to meet the woman I would marry and I might have, accidentally, kind of told her that I’m marrying you.  
  
What?!? She says again, this time with none of the compassion from before. Her cheeks redden and her nostrils flare as she stares him down before bleating out “Accidentally? Kind of? How do you accidentally, kind of tell your mother that we are engaged?!?!?”

Bellamy can’t seem to form the words to respond and so Clarke continues. “Did I do something weird earlier? Because I was really drunk and I don’t really remember a lot of what I said and…”

Bellamy interrupts her “Clarke. Clarke” he pleads, his dark eyes pouring into hers: “I just wish you could have heard how happy it made her when I told her that it was you.” He breathes in again, closing his eyes and shaking himself before opening his eyes to see that Clarke is still staring at him with a look of abject horror.

“It was a stupid idea, I’m sorry. It was stupid. It was stupid. I’m so so sorry.” He says and Clarke’s face softens. “No” she answers. “It wasn’t stupid. I’m being stupid. It wasn’t stupid under the circumstances.”

The compassion in her face makes his chest tighten and he looks up at her again. “Don’t worry, I will clear everything up as soon as we land in Chicago.”

“OK.” She agrees, tipping her head back down to his shoulder. He rests his head back on hers again and sighs.

* * *

 

Bellamy and Clarke are walking quickly and quietly through the terminal at O’Hare. They’ve barely said two words since their conversation on the plane and the tension is palpable. Looking over at Bellamy, Clarke starts giggling. 

“What? What is funny?” Bellamy asks, cracking a smile as he glances over at Clarke.

“Can you imagine if we had to explain this to both of our families?” She giggles again, holding his gaze as they round the corner.

“SURPRISE”

Clarke and Bellamy turn their heads to see his mother, her mother, and her soon to be stepfather, Marcus Kane standing on the other side of the security gate with balloons and a bouquet of flowers.

“Shit” Bellamy mutters and plasters a smile to his face, reaching out to take Clarke’s hand. She follows him, unresisting until they pass through security and are surrounded.

“Mom, what did I say you about telling people?” He demands. God, it is 3 in the morning and he is not ready to deal with this.

“I know, I know” she says “but I’m not even sorry. How could you expect me not to talk to my best friend about our children getting married?!?”

Bellamy looks over and sees Clarke’s mom embracing her. He smiles because he knows that things have been tense between them ever since she decided to go to medical school at UCLA rather than at University of Chicago where Abby worked and taught.

“Congratulations to you both” Marcus says, reaching out to shake Bellamy’s hand. “This is the best gift you could give to your mom.” He says as he reaches out to put an arm around Clarke and looking fondly at Abby.

“No wonder you wouldn’t tell us anything about your mystery man!” Abby says conspiratorially to Clarke while winking at Bellamy. “Honey, where’s your ring?” she asks as she pulls Clarke’s left hand out.

“OK, that’s it. I need to talk to you right now.” Clarkes says and pulls on Bellamy’s arm, dragging him along. She pulls him after her into the women’s restroom. “You do realize that this is…oh hey, how are you?” he says to the woman exiting.

“What are you doing? Our parents are out there!” She yells.

“What do you want me to do?

“I don’t know. I’m not…I’m not marrying you.”

“Woah, marriage? Who said anything about marriage?!? We’re flying back to Los Angeles in 3 days.”

“So what, you just want me to play fiancée for a few days?”

Bellamy looks down at her, moving his mouth to form words but not saying anything until finally: “Is that too much to ask?”

Clarke smacks him on the arm.

“OK. OK. Maybe it is a bit too much to ask. But I’m not asking it for me. I’m asking for my mother. Think about all the good that is going to come from making a dying woman happy.” He pleads with her and she looks up, and god, she can’t resist his puppy dog eyes. “Fine” she mutters, grabbing his hand and plastering a smile on her face as she turns to go face their parents once again.

* * *

 

Octavia is already waking up as Kai begins to cry. She’ll never get used to having to sleep in such short bursts or to waking up to find her breasts have leaked all over the bed but she’s happy. Not so happy that she doesn’t think Lincoln deserves to sleep more than her though so she shoves him and tells him to go get the baby. As she pulls the nursing pillow up and buckles it around her, she reaches over to check her phone.

“Oh god” she whimpers as she sees that she has 4 unread messages and two missed calls. She quickly unlocks her phone, hoping that nothing has happened with her mom. She clicks on her messages and sees that there are two from her mom and one each from Clarke and Bellamy. The latter two are the same message “Call me when you’re up.” She then opens the messages from her mom. The first is a picture of Clarke and Bellamy. The caption reads “Guess who I found at the airport.” It is followed by another message reading “The next happy couple” followed by several emojis of bells and flowers and confetti and finally, golden rings.

“What the fuck?” Octavia growls just as Lincoln walks in with Kai in his arms. The little boy’s howls are insistent and Octavia reaches up to take him and shoves her phone into Lincoln’s now empty hands.

Lincoln looks down at the phone, carefully reading the messages, then back at Octavia who has gotten Kai to latch on and is now staring at him with daggers in her eyes. “What’s wrong?” he asks “I thought you’ve always wanted them to get together.”

“Did you know about this?” Octavia hisses. 

“No. But I still don’t understand why you aren’t happy about it.” He responds. “I never really saw it though. I mean, they’re always ragging on each other.

“It’s foreplay” she says “And happy about finding out that my brother and my best friend have been secretly doing it behind my back for long enough that they are engaged and then having to find out about the engagement from my mom via text message at 4 in the morning?!?!”

“Well, when you put it that way, yeah, I can kinda see why you might be upset.”

Octavia harumphs. “Call them!” she demands.

“Honey, it’s 4 in the morning.”

“Call them!”

* * *

 

Clarke is sitting in the back of her mom’s Saturn, squished up against Bellamy when her phone starts ringing. It is in her bag on the floor and she doesn’t think there is any way that she can reach it with the way they are positioned. Her mom, Marcus, and Bellamy’s mom Aurora had all come in the same car. “To save gas” her mom had said but she knew from glancing over at Aurora on the other side of Bellamy that it was also out of concern for her worsening health. Aurora had always had such a vibrancy about her but now, especially as she slept with her head on her son’s shoulder, she looked withdrawn. 

Just as her phone stops ringing, Bellamy’s starts. Reaching into the breast pocket of his jacket, he pulls it out and glances over at her. Octavia, of course, she thinks as she sees baby Kai on the screen.

“Hey, O.” he says as he answers the phone.

“Don’t ‘Hey, O’ me, Bellamy!” she yells into the phone then quiets into a low hiss when Kai lets out a little cry. “You’re dating my best friend and you don’t tell me? You ask her to marry you and you don’t tell me? I have to find out via text message from mom.”

“You’re one to talk, O.” he replies. “How long have you known that Mom has cancer and you didn’t say a word to me?”

“That’s not the same thing at all and you know it. Gah, you’re killing me! Put your fiancée on the phone!” she demands.

Bellamy glances over at Clarke with a sheepish look and waves the phone. “She wants to talk to you.”

Clarke rolls her eyes. While their parents had left them alone for a minute at baggage claim, they had decided that they would tell Octavia the truth and hope that her love for them and her mother would keep her playing along. But she couldn’t exactly tell Octavia the truth when she was sitting in a car with their parents. O was going to kill them for this. 

Reluctantly, Clarke reacheS for Bellamy’s phone and slowly put it to her ear. “Hey O.” she says.

“Oh, so it’s just “Hey O” with you too, is it? The two of you are practically the same person. I used to think that was what was keeping you apart. This is something that I never thought I’d see. But I’m glad you too got over yourselves and finally did this thing.”

Clarke just blinks and looks over at Bellamy who is gently rubbing his thumb across the back of his mom’s hand. What was Octavia talking about? Was she implying that Clarke and Bellamy should actually be together?

“Hello, earth to Clarke.” Octavia calls through the phone.

“Um, yeah, sorry to not tell you ourselves, O. We’ve got lots to talk about. We’ll catch up later today though, OK?”

“You were supposed to be stopping by for Kai’s 4 AM feeding but since we’ve passed that and since I know Bellamy is going to need someone to help him process this whole, Mom’s got terminal cancer thing, I’m gonna let it pass. I better see you before dinnertime though” she declares in the way that only Octavia can. There’s a short pause and then she says in a softer tone “Take care of him, Clarke. I love you.” and hangs up, leaving Clarke to stare at the phone and then Bellamy as he reaches out to take it out of her grasp. Instead of immediately removing the phone though, he wraps his hand around hers and squeezes, whispering “Thank you.” 

* * *

 

Clarke wakes as the car pulls to a stop in front of Aurora’s tailoring shop. She quickly realizes that she had fallen asleep on Bellamy’s shoulder again and the weight on hers assures her that he had fallen asleep on her as well. 

“Look at the two of you.” Her mom coos, turning around in her seat to look at them. Clarke can feel her cheeks starting to burn and shifts away, peeking at Bellamy out of the corner of her eye and noticing a similar blush rising up his neck.

Aurora must have awoken at some point because she is looking more vibrant and is already bouncing out of the car.

“Since nobody told me that the two of you were together” she says in mock anger, “I didn’t have time to fix it all up nicely. But, the store’s apartment is fully furnished and ready for you two lovebirds.” She snickers, looking over at Abby and Marcus, waggling her eyebrows. “We didn’t think you’d want to stay at either of our houses where you could be interrupted.”

Aurora turns to unlock the door as Clarke turns an even deeper shade of red. She heads towards the door, shouting “Oh honey, you’ve got my bag right” as she passes by Aurora, giving her a quick hug and thanks before traipsing up the stairs. Bellamy is quick on her heels but stops as Marcus grabs his elbow.

“Clarke’s cousin Atom was going to walk her down the aisle tomorrow” he says to Bellamy, “but given the circumstances I thought maybe you would rather have the honor.”

“Um, of course, thank you.” Bellamy replies, shaking Marcus’s hand. He turns towards the door as the parents all keep repeating “Bye, love you” and quickly pushes through and lets the door swing closed behind him.

“It’s cool, I can get the bags.” Bellamy says, looking at both of their suitcases and her garment bag sitting at the base of the stair. “I trust you can” she calls down the stairs, opening the door to the apartment.

“Wow, it’s gorgeous” she says, taking in all the natural light and antique furnishings. 

“Yeah, it’s better than I remember it.” He says as he joins her in the open space.

“This is beautiful” she murmurs as she runs her finger along the edge of the quilt hanging from the ceiling and creating barrier between the living and sleeping quarters.

“Yeah, my mom did that.” He grins proudly. “The bathroom is right there, if you know, you need that. And yeah, everything else is pretty self-explanatory.” he says waving his arms around and stepping up behind her as they both peer around the quilt at the lone, queen-sized bed. The flush returns to Bellamy’s face as he thinks about the possibilities of sharing the bed and then the flush deepens as he remembers that gah, this is his little sister’s best friend!

“Uh, you know, why don’t you take the bed.” She says.

“No, no, no. You take the bed.” He insists.

“I really don’t mind.”

“You take the bed, I’m gonna take the couch.”

“Alright, I’ll take the bed.” She agrees, tossing her purse down. She walks over to peer out the window at the Chicago skyline. She stops and tips her head to the side, sighing. 

“I miss it, too.” He says as he comes to stand next to her. She turns to look up at him as he opens and closes his mouth before saying “Clarke, thanks for doing this. You really pulled it off earlier.”

She snorts and says “Well at least if I ever actually get engaged I’ll know how to act, right?

He grins down at her and says “You made my mom really happy. Thank you.”

Her reply of “Stop it or you’re gonna make me cry” is barely audible as he snatches her up in a bear hug and her face is pressed tight against his chest. They stay like that for a minute, slowly breathing each other in before awkwardly pulling away.

“I’m, uh, I’m gonna jog over to O’s if you wanna come.” Bellamy says as he turns away.

“Jog? Nope, no. I’m not really a jogger type girl. I’m more of a sit in the park and draw type girl.”

“Oh come on, I’ll go really slow.” He says, grabbing her bag and swinging it up onto the bed. Clarke looks at the bed and finds herself imagining him saying that in another context that also involves the bed. She spins around to hide the blush that she now thinks will permanently be staining her face this weekend and unzips her bag, grabbing her workout clothes (or as she usually refers to them, her lounging clothes) out of her bag and heads into the bathroom to change. 

* * *

 

An hour later, Clarke and Bellamy are sitting across from each other in Octavia’s kitchen. Clarke is still panting despite having arrived 20 minutes prior and Octavia is starting to look genuinely concerned.

“God, Clarke, I didn’t know you were this out of shape. You need to come to class with me sometime this week.” 

“I draw my line at jogging” Clarke says meekly. “There is no way that I can survive another one of your krav maga classes.”

“You might still want to try though since I still haven’t decided that I’m not going to beat the crap out of the both of you for this stunt.”

“Sorry, O.” Bellamy says for about the eighteenth time. “I hope you don’t stay pissed for long.”

“Oh, I’m not pissed” she says.

“Really?” he asks, skeptically.

“Yeah, I mean, I got over being grossed out by the idea of you two doing it a long time ago once I realized that you might end up together.”

“Wait, what?” Bellamy croaks as the flames start to rise up his neck once again.

“Yeah, I mean you’re both stubborn as hell. You’d be a better match for each other than most of the losers that you both date. Plus, it would have been cool to have Clarke as a sister-in-law.” She says as she switches her glance from Bellamy to Clarke and sees the matching red tint spread across her friend’s face.

“Water.” Clarke says, coughing a bit. “I, uh, I need water.” She rises from the table and opens the fridge as Lincoln walks in.

“Hey Bellamy” he says, slapping his brother-in-law on the shoulder, “want to come work on the bike with me?”

Gracious at the chance to escape his sister’s ridiculous insinuations about him and Clarke, he gratefully slides out of his chair and follows Lincoln out to the door to the garage.

Clarke slumps back down into her seat and Octavia just gives her a devilish grin.

“There’s nothing going on, O” she says, “And you would have done the same thing in our situation.”

“I don’t know.” She says “And besides, if he was smart, he would have asked you for real.”

“Yeah, I would have turned him down though, he’s not really my type.” Clarke tries to say with a straight face but this is O and she knows about the mad crush that Clarke had on Bellamy when they were growing up.

“Oh, have your tastes changed since moving to LA, then?” Octavia says with a knowing smirk.

Clarke is grateful when their conservation is interrupted by the sound of the motorcycle firing up. Octavia tenses and looks at the baby monitor. “Please don’t wake up, please let him sleep” she murmurs and then “Fuck” as Kai starts wailing.

“God, I used to think that bike was SO hot and now all I can think about is how much noise it makes and how dangerous it is! When did I become such a mom?” she says to Clarke as she pulls her up out of her seat and along the hallway down to the nursery. “Speaking of being a mom, are you ready to meet Kai?” she asks as she swings the door open. 

Clarke has seen the nursery before. She’d flown home during spring break just to be able to paint the murals of zoo animals around the walls. But as the door opens, she is overwhelmed with emotion of finally meeting her godson and tears well up in the corners of her eyes. Octavia reaches down into the crib and picks up Kai, bringing him to her shoulder and bouncing him a few times before he quickly quiets down.

“Wanna go see Aunty Clarke?” she babbles at him, shifting her gaze over to Clarke who nods eagerly. “She’s really not your aunt but she could be if she and your uncle could just get their heads out of their butts” she coos to the baby as she hands him over to Clarke. Clarke barely registers the comment though as all of her attention is focused on the giggling 3 month old that she now holds in her arms. She settles herself into the rocking chair with Kai up against her shoulder, slowly rocking him and whispering sweet nothings in his ear.

Octavia excuses herself to go and take a shower. An hour later, Bellamy wonders in and leans against the doorframe. “You look good with a baby, Princess” he says and she’s so wrapped up in Kai that she doesn’t even baulk at the childhood nickname that used to make her want to punch him. She looks up and smiles at him, motioning for him to come over. She loosens Kai’s grip around her index finger and slowly hands him off to Bellamy. Her skin is already hot from where the baby was resting but as Bellamy’s cool fingers brush against her skin, she feels a heat roar to the surface and she turns towards the hallway to go and collect herself. On her way out the door though, she can’t help but sneak a peak at Bellamy and the baby and feels a sharp tightening in her chest as she sighs.

* * *

 

 _Bum da ba um, ba da ba bum_

Clarke peels her eyes open slowly. I’ve got to change that dumb ringtone she thinks as she fumbles for her phone on the nightstand.

“Morning, Princess” she hears after her groggy hello. “Bellamy, why are you calling me from the other room?” she asks. “There isn’t even a wall between us.”

“I’m not at the apartment,” he says. “I got up early and came over to my mom’s house to help her get ready for the wedding. And I’m calling you to make sure you don’t sleep through it.”

“Skipping out on me already, are you?”

“Never, Princess,” he replies and Clarke is happy that he isn’t in front of her to see the giddy look that springs up on her face.

“Don’t eat anything in the fridge” he warns her. “I don’t know how long stuff has been in there. I grabbed you a bagel and there’s a whole pot of fresh coffee and plenty of sugar. I know you like it sweet.”

“Thanks, Bell,” she says as she pulls herself out of the bed. She hears knocking through the phone and then Bellamy says “Hey, I’ve got to go, but I’ll see you at 3, OK?”

“OK” she replies, and then adds “And hey, Bellamy, thanks for the coffee.”

“Anytime, Princess” he says as he hangs up the phone.

Aurora knocks on Bellamy’s door, smiling as she realizes that he’s on the phone with Clarke and calling her Princess like he did when they were younger. It is no longer said with childish taunting though but now has a sweet edge to it that makes her smile. 

“Are you decent?” she says as she opens the door.

“You didn’t even give me a chance to answer.” Bellamy says as his mom walks in. 

“Well I’m your mother. It’s not like I haven’t seen it all”

“Haha, Mom, very funny. What’s up?”

“Well, first I want to apologize for the airport last night. I know that you asked me to keep it quiet but there haven’t been too many happy moments around here the past month and Abby and Marcus have been so wonderful with helping me out when they should be planning the wedding, well, I just wanted to be able to give them some happy news too.

“Mom, don’t worry about it. It’s OK. Don’t worry. Everything worked out just fine.”

“Nevertheless” she says “I have something that I think will make it up to you.”

“No, Mom,” he protests “You don’t have to give me anything.”

“It’s not really from me,” she says “it’s from your grandma.” She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a diamond ring. It’s a solitaire set in a white gold, art deco setting and his first thought is that it is perfect for Clarke.

“It’s beautiful, but, I, uh, can’t give this to Clarke.” He mumbles as he stares at the ring.

“Why not, you don’t think she’ll like the setting?” His mom asks, directing her gaze back and forth between him and the ring.

He tries to think of something to say and finally lands on “But what about Octavia?”

“Oh, Octavia has my ring and this one isn’t really her style. We both thought that Clarke would love it though. Don’t you agree?”

“Yeah, Mom, I think she’ll love the setting” he says as he reaches up to take the ring from her. “Thank you.”

“Of course, honey, you know how much I love you both. I’ve always considered Clarke to be like a daughter and I’m so excited that you two finally found each other. Now hurry up and finish getting dressed, we have to go over and help finish setting up.” She says as she hurries out the door.

“I’ll be right behind you, Mom,” he replies. A full minute passes though before he stops staring at the ring and slips it into his pocket. It really is the perfect ring for Clarke, he thinks as he grabs his jacket and heads out the door.

* * *

 

Bellamy and Aurora pull up to Clarke’s childhood home at about a quarter to 3. Bellamy helps his mom to the door and then slips through the house. He knows that Clarke has to be out front at 3 for pictures and he’s expecting that she’s feeling a bit anxious. As expected, he finds her standing in front of the back shed.

“Hey” he says softly as he approaches, not wanting to startle her.

“Hey” she replies, kicking lightly at the dirt near the door.

“Why are you out here instead of inside?” he asks.

“It’s just a storage space now,” she replies, looking up at him with sorrowful eyes. “It’s full of junk.”

“Oh” is the only response he can come up with and he knows it isn’t enough.

“How did you know I would be back here?” she asks.

“Your mom is getting remarried today. Of course you would be thinking about your dad,” is his honest reply “And if you’re thinking about your dad then you’re going to be at his studio.”

“It isn’t a studio anymore though.” Clarke sniffs.

“Hey, don’t cry” Bellamy says as he reaches out and pulls her into his chest.

“It’s not just about my dad,” she says, “My mom also asked me if I was pregnant and then tried to explain that there are other options available than marrying you. I’m a med student who volunteers at Planned Parenthood _and_ the Department of Children and Family Services. Of course I know there are other options. But of course, I must be pregnant if you would want to marry me.”

“Ouch” he says. “I’m not sure who should be more offended by that, me or you?”

“Oh, definitely me. She said that I shouldn’t strap you down with my student loans and a baby on top of it. It’s shit like this that made me move 2,000 miles away.”

“So did you tell her the truth?”

“No, I lied. I told her we weren’t pregnant and that we decided to get married because of our deep and soulful connection,” she says, rolling her eyes.

“Well maybe this will get her off your back” he replies, pulling the ring out of his pocket.

“What is that?” she hisses at him.

“It’s my grandmother’s engagement ring.”

“What?” she asks, incredulous. “No, forget it.”

“Take it.”

“No, I’m not wearing your dead grandmother’s engagement ring.

“Clarke, if we’re trying to convince people…”

She interrupts him: “Bellamy, you are out of your mind.”

“Listen, if we’re trying to convince your mom and everyone else that we’re engaged, a ring is a good place to start.”

“Fine,” she sneers “but this isn’t some fake ring. I don’t really think that your grandmother would appreciate me wearing her stunning, Princess-cut, 1.5 carat, die-struck, filigree engagement ring!

“Wow.” He replies, genuinely impressed by her appraisal of the ring. “Would you quit worrying about disrespecting my grandma? Her whole life was about making her children happy and nothing would make her daughter more happy than to see you wear this ring for a few days.”

“Fine” Clarke moans “It probably isn’t going to fit anyways.” She puts her hand out towards Bellamy and he just stares at her. “I’m not putting it on myself,” she huffs, “Put it on me.”

“Really?” He asks.

“Really” she says, tossing her hands up and in the process, accidentally knocking the ring from Bellamy’s hand.

“Oh, shit.” He says, kneeling down to find the ring in the tall grass. Picking up the ring, he looks up and slides the ring onto Clarke’s finger and it’s a perfect fit.

“I guess it’s official” he declares standing up and glancing at Clarke who is staring at the ring in wonder. He frowns when he sees tears start to form in the corner of her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” he asks. “Don’t you like the setting?”

“I love the setting,” she says wistfully.

“Then what’s wrong?”

“I don’t know. I mean yesterday I found out that my boyfriend was cheating on me with his fiancée and now today…I mean, I’ve always wanted somebody to love me so much that they’d propose to me with their grandmother’s engagement ring. I got the ring, it’s just, this really isn’t what I had in mind, you know.”

“Come here” he says, wrapping his arms around her. “Bear hug.” He pulls her tight and can feel as her breath catches. He rests his cheek against her hair and sighs before pulling back and clearing his throat.

“I’m gonna…” Clarke starts.

“Yeah, I, uh…”

“I’m the maid of honor, so I’ve got to go.”

“Yeah, of course. I’m gonna go, um, I’m gonna go over here.”

“Yeah, OK.” She says and stumbles away, trying to steady her breath. _Shit_ , she thinks, as she walks towards the front of the house where people are gathering for pictures. _As if this dress didn’t already look bad enough, I’m now in a permanent state of cherry red_. 

* * *

 

As Bellamy walks away from the shed, he’s thinking about how Clarke’s bright blue eyes shown brighter than any diamond. He’s pulled from his thoughts by the sound of his own name and turns to see Echo, the girl he crushed hard on all throughout their time at Mt. Weather High. 

“Echo Azgeda!” He says, as his eyes take in her dirty blonde hair, skin tight black mini dress, long legs and stilettos. “My god. How are you doing? You look fantastic! How can you even wear a dress like that to a wedding? You’re gonna steal the bride’s thunder.”

“Bellamy Blake, always a flirt.”

“Oh no, no. Not always. Just with you.”

“Champagne?” says the waiter as he hovers nearby.

“Oh, absolutely." Echo says.

“No, thanks.” is Bellamy's response.

“You’re not drinking?” she asks teasingly. “I always thought that weddings made you nervous.

“Oh they do, they do. Terrified. But, uh. It’s just a little bit early for me to start hitting the champagne. Where’s Atohl?

Oh, I guess you didn’t hear. We broke up a few months ago. I mean, Atohl was a great guy but I just felt that if I didn’t sow some wild oats before I settled down that I would regret it, you know?

“Absolutely”

“So now I’m just having a good time. Keeping my options open. Crashing an occasional family wedding to see an old friend. What about you,” she says, stepping closer, “are you seeing anyone special?”

Just as Bellamy opens his mouth to reply he swept up into a hug by Jackson. “Congrats, man! I just heard the good news.”

“What happened? Did you get a promotion?” Echo asks but before Bellamy can reply Jackson says “This guy just got engaged to my niece.”

“You’re engaged? To Clarke Griffin?” Echo stutters. “Wow. Uh, congratulations.”

“Come on, it’s time for photos” Jackson says, pulling on Bellamy’s arm. 

“OK, yeah. We’ll catch later, Echo, “ he calls behind him as he’s dragged away. 

* * *

 

Just as Clarke turns the corner of the house she is swept up into a hug by her cousin Fox. “Oh my god, congratulations! I saw the whole thing. He even got down on his knee. How romantic! Can I see the ring? “ she croons as Clarke looks over her shoulder at Octavia who has apparently adopted a permanent smirk for the weekend.

“Come on” Octavia says, pulling Clarke away from Fox. “She has maid of honor duties. You can interrogate her later at the reception.”

* * *

They make it through the wedding photos even though Abby basically decides that it should be an engagement shoot for Clarke and Bellamy rather than a wedding session. 

It isn’t until they are standing at the end of the aisle, about to walk to the front that Clarke starts to freak out.

“I can’t do this,” she hisses.

“What do you mean, we’re next.” He says, looking around in a panic for the wedding planner in case Clarke tries to bolt.

“No, I mean our fake engagement.” She says between clinched teeth. 

“Why?”

“I am FREAKING out! OK?”

“OK, easy Princess.”

“Monty and Jasper are arguing over where we should honeymoon. I don’t particularly enjoy lying to our friends, oh, and no matter what I say, my mom still thinks I’m pregnant.”

“OK. Alright.” He says, rubbing circles into the small of her back.

“Your turn” the wedding planner interjects and they start to walk down the aisle.

“Oh God”

“You can lean on me, OK? Come on, here we go.” Bellamy says as he threads her arm through his. He sees his mom near the front and keeps his eyes on her as tears well up in her eyes. They get to the front and before he let’s her go, Bellamy squeezes Clarke’s hand and he can see some of the tension in her shoulders release. They part ways and assume their spots, peering down the aisle to watch as Abby approaches.

* * *

The ceremony was short and sweet. Bellamy and Clarke’s eyes met several times as they both glanced at each other and then quickly away again. It’s now the reception and Clarke is stuck sitting in between Vera Kane, Marcus’s mom and Callie Cartwig, her mom’s best friend. 

“Always remember to tell him he’s doing a good job down there” Vera says. “Men need lots of encouragement.”

“Oh god” Clarke moans, “I need to go get another drink.”

“Should you really be drinking in your condition, dear? Callie asks. Clarke opens her mouth to respond but is saved by Bellamy.

“Excuse me ladies, do you mind if I steal my fiancée? He says as he grabs her hand and pulls her to the dance floor.

“How are you holding up?” he yells over the catchy pop tune that is blaring from the speakers.

“Under the circumstances, pretty well” she admits, letting a grin spread across her face.

“More champagne?” a waiter asks and they look at each other before draining their glasses and turning to him, both taking one in each hand. “Cheers” Bellamy says, clinking his glass to hers. “Cheers” she responds, clinking their other set and draining a glass.

* * *

Clarke and Bellamy get a cab home from the wedding. As they fall out of the cab, Clarke whines “I don’t wanna walk up the stairs.” Bellamy reaches down to pull her up and then swings around. “Climb aboard, Princess”, he says, offering her his back. She climbs on and he hands her the keys. “You’re in charge of doors,” he commands and leans forward so that she can unlock the outer door. “Charge” she cries as she flings it open and he sprints up the steps, gripping her thighs to his side as she wraps one arm around his neck and the other tangles into his curly hair. 

“I can’t get the door,” she giggles at the top of the stairs. “I think I keep locking it.”

He releases his grip on her right leg and she squeezes tighter as he reaches down and unlocks the door. 

“Ow” she yelps as she slams her head into the door as he leans down. She quickly forgets the pain though as they push the door. “Go” she demands and then “mush, mush, mush” as he carries her through the apartment. He drops her onto the bed and she mutters “I’m tired.”

“I bet you are, Princess.” He grins and turns to head towards his couch. He begins stripping his clothes as he goes until he’s down to just his boxers and socks as he reaches the couch and collapses, reaching behind him to pull off his socks.

Clarke rises from the bed to remove her dress and pulls it straight over her head. The maroon monstrosity is about a third of the way off when she realizes that the waist is too narrow to go over her shoulders and her arms are trapped inside and she can’t pull it up or down.

“Help,” she drunkenly cries.

“Huh?” He mumbles.

“I’m stuck” comes the muffled reply and he chuckles, pulling himself up from the couch.

“You are a ridiculous human being.”

“It’s not funny, I’m stuck.” She pleads as he reaches over to tug on her dress. He tries to pull it up but it isn’t budging.

“Turn around.” He commands, laughing and beginning to tug down once she has turned. “This was your idea of how to get a dress off?

“Just get it!” she yells just before he manages to slide the dress back down.

“There. Hold on.” He says as she thanks him. “Your zipper is stuck.” He brushes the hair away from her neck and tries to grip the tiny pull tab as Clarke giggles.

“Did you have a good time today?” he asks.

“Yeah, couldn’t you tell?” she counters.

“I just wanted to make sure this whole fake engagement craziness didn’t ruin it for you.”

“You wanna know something weird?” she asks.

“Yeah, I’m into weird.”

“After watching so many of my friends get engaged, I always wondered what it would feel like to have everyone come up to you and congratulate you just for being in love.”

“And…”

“It felt wonderful” she sighs and then: “Does that make me horrible?”

“Clarke, I don’t think you could be horrible if you tried.” He says, just as he’s finally able to grab the tab and pull it down. “There! You are free.” She spins around and is face to face with his bare chest. Slowly, she draws her eyes up to meet his and starts to lean in. Bellamy’s eyes darken as he leans forward and -

_Bum da ba um, ba da ba bum_

They both flinch and Clarke quickly turns to pick up her phone from the bed. “It’s Octavia” she says.

Bellamy puts his hand out: “Here, I’ll take.”

“Hello.”

“Good. You’re awake!! We’re coming over!!!” Octavia yells through the phone.

“No, no, no you’re not. We’re exhausted. And you’re tanked.”

“Yes, I’m drunk. And that’s OK because I pumped enough for Kai and we have a babysitter so we’re gonna do WHATEVER THE HELL WE WANT!!!!!!!”

Clarke turns to go the bathroom as Bellamy plops down on the bed, continuing his chorus of “No, no, no” as Octavia continues to shout at him. Eventually his protests start to die down just as Octavia also falls silent. Lincoln’s calm voice can be heard through the receiver “We’re heading home now, man. Good luck tonight.”

Inside the bathroom, Clarke is looking at herself in the mirror. She shakes her head and then giggles. She straightens up and looks at herself again before dropping her dress to the floor. She steps out of her dress and tosses it aside as she bends down to her bag, rummaging through it for her black lace boy shorts. When she finds them, she stands back up and peels off her Spanx, enjoying the cool air touching her newly exposed skin. She pulls the black panties on and grabs her silk robe to wrap around her before she steps out of the bathroom.

It’s three steps into the bedroom and then she sees Bellamy passed out in the middle with her cell phone laying on his chiseled abs. She bites her lower lip and approaches slowly, picking up her phone and placing it on the bedside table. Bellamy starts snoring and she peers down at him and then gently climbs over him to the other side of the bed, pulling the covers over herself as she snuggles in next to him.

* * *

Bellamy’s eyes pop open as he realizes someone has a hold taken a hold of his chin and is shaking it. 

His mom comes quickly into focus and he looks at her in concern. “Is everything OK?” he asks and she nods but indicates that he should follow her “Just don’t wake up Clarke” she whispers and he realizes that the soft weight across his chest is Clarke’s arm. He tries to scoot out from underneath her grasp and is happy to feel the sensation of his boxers getting twisted as he pulls himself to the edge of the bed, trying carefully not to awaken Clarke. He follows his mom into the kitchen where she’s already taken a seat at the table. She looks tired and he says as much, asking her if she feels alright.

“Yeah, the wedding just took a lot out of me and I think I should probably stay home and rest. But,” she pauses “we’re a little short-handed down at the store.”

“Oh yeah, of course I can come help, Mom.”

“You’re a good boy, Bellamy” she says as she cups his cheek with her hand.

“I just need to shower and grab something quick for breakfast so just give me a few minutes.”

“You shower. I’ll get breakfast for both of you.”

“Mom, you’re exhausted, you don’t need to do that.

“Nonsense. What’s Clarke like?” Bellamy pauses. When she first moved to LA two years ago, they had made a habit of meeting for brunch once a month. As she had started to find her own friend group, they had fallen out of the habit but he remembered that she always ordered chocolate chip pancakes. He asks him mom to get her those and she smiles before sending him off to shower.

* * *

_Bum da ba um, ba da ba bum_

Clarke rolls over to grab her phone from the nightstand, muttering “I’ve got to change that ring”

“You are such a bitch.” Is all she hears and she mumbles “what?” since she is not able to process who would be calling her at such an unreasonable hour and calling her a bitch.

“You dump Finn. And then you get engaged to Bellamy Blake in the same weekend and you don’t even call us?!?!?” Harper cries.

Clarke looks at the clock on the wall, realizing that it’s 11 AM and thus not unreasonable that her friends on the West Coast are up and caffeinated enough to call her.

“Woah, woah. Where did you even hear that?”

“So it’s true!” Harper cries and Clarke can hear Monroe in the background squealing.

“You don’t understand” she says, about to explain everything when Aurora knocks on the door and comes in carrying a take-out bag.

“Mrs. Blake” she says.

“Please, call me mom or Aurora”

“Mrs. Blake is there?” Harper asks. “Oh my god. Did you like, move in?”

“Ok, ah, Harper, this isn’t a good time.”

“Ask her about the ring!!!” Monroe cries in the background.

“1.5 carat, Princess-cut, antique art deco style” Aurora leans over and says into the speaker.

“OH MY GOD!” Harper and Monroe both cry.

“Harper, I really have to go now?”

She hears Monroe grab the phone: “Wait, is it really his grandmother’s engagement ring?”

Clarke looks up at Aurora who smiles and nods as Clarke says “Yup, it is.” And the girls let out another squeal. “It’s like a fairytale” Monroe sighs into the phone.

“OK, I’ll call you later” Clarke says before quickly hanging up the phone.

“Sit down, I got you breakfast.” Aurora says as she hands Clarke a box. Clarke opens it and sees little brown circle with dark brown splotches throughout and inhales deeply. “Chocolate chip pancakes!?!” My favorite! How did you know?” She looks up at Aurora who is beaming down at her, “Bellamy, of course.” Clarke bites her bottom lip. It’s been months since she and Bellamy met up for brunch and sure, she had always ordered them when they did but she was surprised that he had remembered.

“You don’t know where he is, do you?” She asks. “I need to talk to him.”

“Oh, you can’t talk to him right now.” Aurora says. “He’s downstairs in the shop working with a customer.”

Clarke nods and turns instead to dig into her pancakes. “How are you feeling Aurora?” she asks, not being able to call her mom in this farcical situation.

“Oh, I have good days and I have bad.” She says and reaches over to grasp Clarke’s hand. “Yesterday was one of my best days and that had everything to do with you. I love seeing my children happy and I just want you to know that you make both of my children very happy.

“Mrs. Blake, Aurora, Mom” she says as she notes the pleading look in the other woman’s eyes. “There’s something I’ve got to tell you.”

There’s a knock on the door and Abby walks in. “Sorry, I’m late, traffic was just awful.”

“Late for what?” Clarke asks.

“Did you forget that you promised you would come with me to return all of our rentals today?” Abby says as she looks around the apartment. Her eyes come to rest on Clarke’s bridesmaid’s dress in a ball right outside the bathroom. “This is supposed to be hung up, young lady” she says in a teasing voice “but I guess I can’t be mad at you tossing it aside in the throws of passion,” she laughs and winks at Aurora.

“Gross, mom” Clarke says as she flushes, remembering that she had, in fact tossed the dress aside fully planning on having her way with Bellamy before she discovered him already passed out in bed.

The two older women continue to laugh as Clarke’s blush deepens and she quickly shoves back from the table. “OK. I’m going to go take a shower so we can go.” Clarke escapes to the bathroom where she removes her robe and looks down at her lace panties in disappointment. “Sorry guys” she mumbles to them before turning on the shower, keeping the water on cold.

* * *

“So how was your day?” Clarke asks, reaching over the table to grab one of the Chinese takeout boxes that Bellamy had just brought in with him. 

“Good. I mean, I was hurting a little bit this morning. It could have been because of the tequila. And the dancing. But overall it was really good.” He says as he ladles out the fried rice onto his plate.

“Oh god, I know” she says as she sits back in her chair, ready to devour her food.

Bellamy looks over at Clarke and then drops his eyes to his plate. “Did anything…ummm…did anything happen last night?” he asks, dragging his eyes back to her face.

“Are you serious?” Clarke looks aghast and Bellamy’s heart starts beating faster.

“Yeah…?” He drops his eyes back to his plate.

“Bellamy, you rocked my word.” He quickly looks back up and sees Clarke returning his gaze, her eyes showing open fondness.

“I did?” he asks hesitantly.

“You were magnificent.”

“I was?”

There is a long pause and Bellamy can’t tear his eyes away from hers. And then suddenly, the corners of Clarke’s eyes crinkle as her cheekbones rise and a huge grin has spread across her face and she starts laughing.

Bellamy feels a wave of relief wash over him: “I mean we woke up in our underwear spooning. What was I supposed to think?” He looks back down as he tries to hide a blush and notices a heaviness that has settled in his belly like he’s actually disappointed that nothing happened.

“No, nothing happened.” She assures him.

“Thank god!” he says and then looks up to see a pained expression on Clarke’s face. “Shit, I mean, not that, I mean, not that that wouldn’t have been great.” _Fuck, did he just say it would have been great to have sex with Clarke? Did he just admit that to her?_ he thinks, rubbing his hand across his face, trying to figure out how he’s going to get out of this “It’s just…it would make things even more complicated than they already are.”

“Like this could get more complicated.” Clarke says.

Bellamy grabs his beer and takes a long gulp. “Actually, speaking of making things more complicated. You know how I helped out down in the store today?” He looks up to see her nodding at him and continues. “Well, it’s obvious that with the doctor’s appointments and everything, she needs more help around here and Octavia can’t help much because of the new baby and well, I offered to stay for a bit.”

“And you were wondering if I could stay too?”

“No, I mean, yes. I mean, I know it’s too much to ask on top of everything else I’ve asked of you but she asked if you were staying too and I told her I didn’t know but I’m kinda sorta hoping you will.” There is a short pause and he can’t stand the silence. “Oh shit, this was stupid. I’m sorry.”

“No, Bellamy, it’s not stupid. Of course I’ll stay.” Clarke says softly.

“Really, you don’t need to get back?

“You know as well as I do that there are three weeks left of summer break. And it’s basically my last summer break ever so I should probably do something instead of just sitting around my apartment. 

“You’d rather stay and pretend to be my fiancée than return to LA and lay around your apartment?” Bellamy says with a smirk.

“I’d rather stay and see my family and hang out with my best friend and brand new godson than go back to LA.” she says. Bellamy smiles, happy that she’s staying, happy to be reminded that he too gets to spend more time with his sister and nephew. But he is also acutely aware that she did not list him amongst the reasons that she is happy to stay and he’s not sure why that’s upsetting him.

“Thank you.”

* * *

The next morning Clarke wakes up as Bellamy is sneaking back into the apartment with two cups of coffee and a pastry bag in his hand. 

“Morning, Princess.” He says as she rolls herself out of the bed and stumbles towards the kitchen table. “I got us breakfast! I figure if we’re staying here for the next 3 weeks though we’ll need to go grocery shopping. Might that be something you would be willing to do while I work downstairs.”

Clarke can already feel herself waking up more merely from the smell of the coffee and she inhales deeply. “Yeah, I can do that. But don’t you need help at the store?”

“Help? You want to help out at the store?

She merely nods her head over the top of her cup.

“So you’re willing to stay and continue to pretend to be my fiancée and you’re volunteering to work for free at my mom’s shop?”

“Well not for free, really. I mean, I _am_ getting a sweet apartment rent-free for the next few weeks.”

“An apartment only a short distance of your childhood home where you could also stay for free.” He says.

“Oh, believe me, getting to be in Chicago without having to stay under my mom’s roof? It’s a good deal. 

* * *

 

It’s Friday morning, which means that Clarke and Bellamy have successfully been helping to run Aurora’s tailoring shop for almost a week. Bellamy had grown up helping out around the shop so he could actually do some of the tailoring work and he had shown Clarke how to handle the books. She had also taken over as the receptionist. So, when the phone rings, she’s the one who answers. 

“Blake Tailors and Alterations. How can we help you?”

“Hi. Is Bellamy there?”

“He’s with a customer right now, can I take a message?”

“Um, yeah. OK, can you tell him that Echo Azgeda called?”

“Echo Azgeda? From high school?”

“Who is this? Clarke?”

“Yeah, sorry. It’s Clarke. I’ll…um, I’ll tell him you called. Does he have your number?”

“Yeah. I gave it to him at the wedding.”

“The wedding? You mean my mom’s wedding? I didn’t see you there.”

“I slipped out early. Sorry we didn’t get a chance to talk.”

“No worries. We’re actually sticking around town for a few more weeks so maybe I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah I heard you were staying for a bit. It’d be great to see you. We should plan something. As I said, Bellamy has my number. And thanks in advance for letting him know I called. 

“No worries. Take care.” 

Clarke set the phone back down. She debates about whether or not to actually give Bellamy the note. She can’t really think of a good enough reason not to though so she places it on top of the stack of messages.

* * *

“Hello?” 

“Hey Echo. It’s Bellamy. I got your message that you called.”

“Oh hey…” she says and then there was a brief silence. 

“Listen, I’m glad you called. We just barely got a chance to catch up at the wedding. What about grabbing a drink later?”

“I’m sort of surprised that Clarke gave you the message.”

“Of course she gave me the message. Why wouldn’t she? And you didn’t answer my question about drinks.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“It’s a Friday. Drinks on a Friday are always a good idea.”

“What about lunch? The three of us can get lunch tomorrow.”

“The three of us?”

“Yeah, you, me, and your fiancée.”

“Oh, Clarke? No, she’s busy doing a spa day thing with Octavia tomorrow. But I’m free for lunch.”

There’s a pause before Bellamy says “Come on. What’s lunch between friends? I’ll even pay."

“12:30 at Twisted Spoke. And we split the bill.”

“Deal. See you then.”

* * *

It’s Saturday and Clarke and Octavia are sitting in the sauna, relaxing their muscles in preparation for their massages. 

“This is the first thing I’ve done for myself since Kai was born. This is the best idea you’ve ever had. I’m so glad you’re staying for a few weeks.”

“Well I couldn’t miss out on spending more time with you and Kai.”

Octavia rolls her eyes and says, “While I appreciate the sentiment, I both think we know that’s not why you’re staying.” 

Clarke rolls her own eyes to look at Octavia. “Alright. Why do you think I’m staying?”

“Well, because I think you like playing fiancée to my brother.

“It’s been kind of fun.” Clarke admits.

“And because I think you’re falling in love with him.”

“HA! No way!” Clarke scoffs. “He’s like my brother.”

“You are so deep in denial.” Octavia says with a knowing smirk. Fortunately, Clarke doesn’t have to say anymore because there’s a knock on the door and a small brunette pops her head in.

“Octavia. We have time to do your special waxing now if you’d rather.” The woman says, using her index fingers to draw a heart in the air when she says ‘special waxing’.

“Special waxing?” Clarke says, peering over Octavia who is nodding at the women and starting to stand up.

“I have not taken care of business down there since Kai was born and I thought I would spice it up with a fun shape.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. I’ve done it before and it drives Lincoln crazy. And it makes me feel good too. You should try it.”

“Yeah, I’m not going to go through that for no one to see it.”

“Well you could show it off to my brother!” Octavia says, wiggling her eyebrows.

“Gross, Octavia.”

“Yeah, that’s about as much as I can handle of talking about my brother’s sex life. Think about it though.” She says as she heads through the door, leaving Clarke alone in the sauna, flushing not only from the heat.

* * *

Bellamy arrives at the restaurant at 12:15 and secures a small booth with a low table. He’s looking over the large selection of whisky when Echo slides in to the booth across from him. He smiles up at her and starts the conversation. He’s always been a smooth talker and he’s quickly able to make Echo laugh and relax. 

As they are finishing up their food and their third round of cocktails, Bellamy leans back and stretches his arms across the back of the booth. “So, what happened with you and Atohl?”

Echo sighs. “You know, we were just together for a really long time so I think we both got engaged because that’s what we thought we were expected to do but then we couldn’t actually bring ourselves to plan anything for the wedding. And I just realized that if we couldn’t even have run registering for gifts together that this probably wasn’t what it was supposed to be. So I ended it. So no horror stories about the awfulness of engagements. I’m sure nothing like that will happen with you and Clarke.

“Ah yes, well the thing with Clarke. That’s actually a very complicated story.” He says as he leans forward.

“Really? How so?” Echo mimics his body movement so they are both leaning across the small table.

* * *

Octavia and Clarke are heading out the door of the spa, loose and relaxed after their full body massages. “I don’t want you to lose your relaxation by hanging out with a screaming baby, but you are welcome to come over if you want.” 

“No thanks. Bellamy should be home soon and we’re going to go grocery shopping.”

“Running errands together. How domestic!” Octavia smirks. “Where is he now though? The shop is closed today.”

“He went out to lunch with Echo Azgeda.”

“Echo Azgeda!?!”

“What? It’s just lunch. I trust him.”

“You trust him? TRUST HIM? Can you hear yourself? You’re falling in love with him and he’s, you know, Bellamy, out on a date with the hottest girl from Mt. Weather High!”

Octavia shakes her head. “Just make sure to buy yourself plenty of ice cream at the grocery so we can gorge on it when this all blows up.”

* * *

Echo reaches across the table and tangles Bellamy’s fingers through hers. “So, you’re not actually engaged.” 

“No, I’m actually just as free and single as you.” Bellamy flips her hand over and draws his finger along the lines of her palm.

“So what are your plans this afternoon looking like?”

“They’re looking better every minute.”

“Want to get out of here? My apartment’s just around the corner.”

Bellamy pulls his hand back from Echo and pulls out his wallet. He drops several bills on the table, enough he’s sure to cover the bill and provide a decent tip, before reaching back out to grab Echo’s hand. “Let’s go!” he says with a twinkle in his eye.

* * *

_2:03 PM_

_Bellamy Blake: Do you mind going grocery shopping without me? Echo and I are still catching up. Don’t know when I’ll be home._

Clarke receives Bellamy’s text just as she is getting off the L. She knows that she had told Octavia that she was fine with Bellamy seeing Echo but she isn’t really. She knows that what she is experiencing is jealousy but she can’t really process why. Octavia had said that Clarke was falling in love with Bellamy but she’d gotten over her crush on her best friend’s big brother years ago. She still finds him attractive, but who wouldn’t with his golden skin, fit build and broad shoulders, his dark, curly hair.

She starts walking towards the grocery store. Octavia had suggested ice cream but she is pretty sure that this requires wine.

* * *

Clarke had texted Bellamy to say that she was fine with shopping on her own and he hadn’t responded so she still doesn’t know when he will be home. She makes dinner – enough for them both – but he still isn’t home so she eats it by herself on the couch, watching Saturday night reruns. She finishes a whole bottle of wine with dinner and still isn’t really able to comprehend the increasing jealousy she feels at Bellamy’s absence. So she grabs another bottle of wine and heads into the bathroom, ready to soak away her concerns in the bath.

She has been laying the bath for 15 minutes, listening to Aktar Aktar’s Mothershipman, and has already downed another full glass of wine. Baths have always been a place of comfort and relaxation for her. Her apartment in LA doesn’t have a bathtub so it’s been awhile and this is the largest bathtub she’s ever seen in an apartment. She thinks back to when she was growing up and used her time in the bath to explore the changes in her body. She sets down her glass and slips her hand under the water, dragging her fingers lightly along her skin until she reaches the intersection of her legs. As she draws her finger through her hair there, she thinks back to her earlier conversation about the special wax.

She looks over and sees her razor sitting along the edge of the tub, unused since the morning of the wedding. _A heart may be too complicated with a razor_ , she thinks, _but she could tidy things up down there_. She pulls herself up out of the bubbles and reaches over to pick up the razor.

“Clarke?” Bellamy opens the bathroom door.

“OH GOD” they both scream at the same time as Bellamy drops his eyes and then looks up again before backing out the door. Clarke crosses her arms in front of her body. She still has bubbles all over but none are concealing parts she normally keeps covered.

“I’m uh, I’m just taking a bath.” She calls through the now closed door.

Bellamy rests his head against the door and smiles. “Sounds good. Sounds relaxing.” he says, swearing to himself when he voice cracks on the last word.

“It’s a really big tub” she says and then flinches. Was she just commenting on the size of the tub or indicating it was big enough for two? She isn’t even sure what she meant.

“What?”

“Um. Hey, how was hanging out with Echo?” she asks, ignoring her previous comment.

“Oh, it was good. You know. It went a little long.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t call.”

“Bellamy, we’re not actually engaged. You don’t have to call me. Do whatever you want with whoever you want.

“I know.” He says and there’s a short pause before he adds “Actually, it’s good to hear you say that because we sort of hooked up.”

Clarke freezes for a second. She sees her wine sitting to the side and grabs it, taking a large swig before saying “Like _hooked up_ hooked up?”

“Yeah. It was kind of crazy. But don’t worry. I told her about us and swore her to secrecy so we’re cool there.” He is still leaning on the door frame and doesn’t here any response from the bathroom. “You’re cool with me and Echo hooking up right?”

“Yup” Clarke chirps from the other side of the door.

“Well I’ll let you finishing bathing or whatever” he says, turning away from the door and settling himself into the couch.

Clarke stays in the tub until the bubbles are gone and the water is cold. When she finally leaves, Bellamy is asleep on the couch and she tiptoes over to the bed, crawling in and throwing the covers over her head.

* * *

It’s 10 AM when Clarke wakes up, the sunlight pouring in through the window and creating streaks of light across the bed. She can hear Bellamy’s heavy breathing from the couch. She quietly slides out of bed and slips into something more presentable but just as comfortable as her pajamas. She then sneaks through the kitchen, opening up the freezer and grabbing the ice cream before heading to the apartment door, pulling it closed softly behind her. 

Octavia and Lincoln’s place is only two stops away on the L and it takes Clarke about 20 minutes to get there. She’s pretty sure the ice cream won’t be too melted by the time she gets there but honestly, it’s not what she is upset about right now.

She knocks softly on their front door, avoiding the doorbell in case it might wake Kai. She hears the baby wailing though and her own tears start to fill her eyes. The door opens suddenly and Octavia is standing there with her dark hair falling out of her pony tail, a dirty diaper in one hand. Clarke shrugs as a tear falls down her cheek and Octavia reaches out to pull her through the door.

“Lincoln, I need you to take care of Kai for awhile. Clarke and I will be in the living room.”

“Got it” Lincoln’s voice echoes through the house and Octavia is pulling Clarke through the kitchen.

“I brought ice cream.” Clarke says, holding up the bag. Octavia reaches over and opens a drawer, grabbing two spoons before she turns back to Clarke and continues ushering her into the living room. She leads her to the couch and Clarke basically falls onto it, dropping her head into her hands. “I’m so stupid.” She mumbles.

“Want to talk about it?” Octavia asks as she peels off the lids of the pints and hands one over to Clarke, forcing Clarke to raise her head and look at the other girl.

“He slept with her.” Clarke says. “And then basically asked my permission to continue sleeping with her.”

“What did you say?”

“What could I say? I said we weren’t in a real relationship so he could do whatever he wanted.”

“You could have told him that you have feelings for him and seen what happened.” Octavia points out gently.

“Yeah, that would have gone smoothly. Hey Bellamy, you know how I’m your kid sister’s best friend that you barely even like platonically but desperately asked to play your fake fiancée? And you know how you just slept with the girl that everyone knows you were hot for all through high school? Well how about you forget about her and the whole awkwardness of our fake relationship and we talk about my feelings for you.”

“That’s exactly what I think you should have done. Christ, Clarke, we’re adults. Those are the kinds of conversations you’re supposed to have as an adult who is interested in another adult.

“Stop lecturing me about being an adult just because you have a happy marriage and a beautiful son.” Clarke says, but without malice and she bumps her shoulder into Octavia’s. “I’m sure _my feelings_ are just the result of the whole fake engagement euphoria. I just need something else to focus on.

“Well if you’re going to stay and continue to avoid your feelings, we’re going to need to find something for you to do to keep your mind off of him.”

“Got any ideas?” 

* * *

 

It’s later on Sunday afternoon and Clarke and Octavia are sitting on a mat, stretching. 

“I cannot believe that you convinced me to come to your krav maga class!”

“Oh come on. Nothing helps you deal with sexual frustration like working out. Except you know, sex.” Octavia says. “Besides, since Lincoln works here, we don’t have to pay.”

“I’m already here. You don’t need to convince me anymore. I’m still going to complain the whole time though.”

“You might reconsider whining out loud. Indra may be small but you do not want to be on the other end of one of her death glares.” Octavia says, nodding her head towards the small, dark-skinned woman at the front of the classroom.

“OK, let’s get started.” Indra calls out. 

* * *

 

The class goes smoothly, or as smoothly as it can go considering that Clarke has only been to Krav Maga classes twice before. She is waiting at the receptionist desk for Octavia to wrap up her conversation with Indra.

“Friends with Octavia?” Clarke turns around and sees a slim girl with lightly tanned skin, dark brown hair pulled back with a series of braids, and green eyes surrounded by dark, thick eyeliner.

“Uh yeah” Clarke says, reaching out her hand.

“I’m Lexa” the girl responds as she reaches over the desk to clasp Clarke’s.

“So you work here with Lincoln?” Clarke asks.

“Yeah, well, I actually own the place.” Lexa responds.

Clarke looks around at the space and back at the girl in front of her who can’t be much older than Clarke herself.

“Wow” Clarke says, impressed.

“Thanks” Lexa says, a pink tinge on her cheeks. “Do you live around here? You should come back to class. You were doing pretty well in there for a beginner.”

Clarke feels her own blush start to bloom. “I used to. I live in LA now and am only here for another couple of weeks.”

Clarke can see the disappointment in Lexa’s face but the other girl still smiles at her. “Well, if you want to make the most out of those few weeks, feel free to come back anytime. Or if you’d rather avoid class, I’m also available for drinks.”

Clarke fully blushes at that and Lexa looks down at the desk, grabbing a pen and paper and scribbling out her name and number. “Here’s my cell.” She says, handing the paper over to Clarke just as Octavia bounds up to the desk.

“Hey Lexa!” she says, before looking back between the two women with a knowing look.

“Hey Octavia. Looking good out there. Tell Lincoln I said hello and to keep up his good work with your training.”

“Will do! See you on Wednesday!” Octavia says, grabbing Clarke’s hand and starting towards the door.

“Bye Clarke.” Lexa says with a coy smile.

“Bye” Clarke calls over her shoulder.

As the door closes behind them, Octavia turns to Clarke. “I said we needed to find _something_ to get your mind off of Bellamy but _someone_ might just be better.”

* * *

Between working at the shop and obligatory meals with Aurora or Abby and Marcus (and more often than not, with all three), Clarke doesn’t find the time or the nerve to call Lexa. 

Every once in awhile, she thinks she catches Bellamy looking at her fondly while they are work and her heart skips a beat. But he’s also been taking long lunches and returning with disheveled hair and a grumbling belly so Clarke is pretty sure he isn’t actually consuming any food during his “lunches.”

While they are eating breakfast together on Thursday, she decides to ask him how things are going with Echo.

“You know. Good. It is what it is. You know other than the physical. I mean, the sex is great, but other than that, we don’t really have a whole lot to talk about.” He says, grabbing her empty plate and moving to the sink. “I don’t know. I wish you could just have both. You know? The physical and…whatever the hell that other thing is.”

“I think you’re referring to love.”

“Haha, Princess, come on. I’m being serious here.”

“So am I” she says, standing up and clearing the plates. “I’m going to go take a shower.”

* * *

Clarke finally decides to call Lexa on Thursday when Octavia stops by the shop with Kai and tells her that Lexa asked about her after Octavia’s class the previous night. Bellamy has just come back from another long lunch and seeing his curls even more unruly than normal strikes a pang of jealousy. She needs to get over this and going on a date with Lexa seems like a good first step. So she calls the other woman and sets up a dinner date for Friday evening. 

Bellamy doesn’t leave for what has become his normal long lunch on Friday, instead working with a client through the lunch hour. Clarke is sitting at the front desk working on paperwork when Bellamy saunters up with an envelope in his hands.

“Princess” he says, sitting down next to her and leaning towards her across the desk. “To thank us for getting that job done on such a short time frame, that client just gave me two tickets to this jazz show tonight. So, I thought you might want to come?” 

“Oh, I can’t tonight. I have plans.” She says, looking up at Bellamy. “Actually, I have a date.” She sees an expression cross his face that she thinks might be shock or perhaps anger. “That’s cool, right?

“Yeah, yeah” he says, his voice pitched higher than normal. Clarke returns to the paperwork on her desk but looks up after a few seconds when she realizes that Bellamy is still looking at her. She’s about to ask him why he’s staring but the phone rings and it seems to startle him and he shakes his head as she reaches for the phone. “Blake Tailors and Alterations. How can we help you?” Clarke says, watching Bellamy turn and walk away. He pauses in the door and looks over his shoulder at her.

* * *

Bellamy ends up taking his best friend from high school, Miller, to the jazz show. It’s in an intimate bar with tables set up for couples and the music is tending towards the romantic side. Bellamy is equal parts relieved and regretful that Clarke isn’t the one with him. He’s confused trying to figure out that out and is barely paying attention to the show or to Miller. It isn’t until his friend loudly sighs for what Bellamy assumes is not the first time that Bellamy leans over and asks him if he wants to leave. “God, yes!” Miller says, chugging the rest of his beer and standing up to leave immediately. They part ways at the door, with Bellamy telling Miller to say hello to his boyfriend Monty for him and Miller, with a knowing look, telling him to give his regards to Clarke. Bellamy plans to do so when he gets home but Clarke isn’t in the apartment when he gets home and he falls asleep on the couch before she returns.

* * *

Clarke meets Lexa at a new sushi restaurant. The food is good and the conversation is easy and the women stay at their table talking long after they’ve finished their meal. Clarke doesn’t tell Lexa about her fake engagement to Bellamy. It’s a weird thing to tell someone on a first date. She can’t keep from telling Lexa stories that feature Bellamy though. She doesn’t realize how much she had talked about him though until they’ve left the restaurant and are saying their goodbyes. Lexa leans forward and places a delicate kiss on Clarke’s lips. Clarke returns the kiss for a moment before pulling back.

“I’m sorry. I’m not…I’m not ready.” Clarke says and looks up to Lexa giving her a knowing look.

“It’s Bellamy isn’t it? You care about him.” The last sentence is a statement, not a question, but Clarke finds herself nodding her head.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have agreed to this but I’m trying to get over it and I thought this would help but…” she trails off.

“Well I can’t say I’m not disappointed but I understand.” Lexa says. “If things don’t work out with him and your back in Chicago, give me a call.”

Clarke smiles and nods and thanks Lexa before turning and walking down the street towards the apartment she is sharing with Bellamy.

He’s already asleep when she enters the apartment and she removes her heels in the doorway and tiptoes across the apartment, avoiding the areas where she knows the old floorboards squeak. She’s encountered sleepy Bellamy every morning this week and she doesn’t think she has the self-control to not run her fingers through his bed head if he were to wake up and want to talk to her.

She sets her alarm for early the next morning, puts it on vibrate, and places it under her pillow, hoping that she can get up and leave the apartment before Bellamy wakes up in the morning.

She’s worried that she’ll have trouble falling asleep but she focuses in on the sounds of Bellamy’s heavy breathing and it lulls her to sleep. She doesn’t awake until her phone buzzes the next morning and she is able to rise and get ready without disturbing Bellamy. She leaves him a note on the kitchen counter that explains that she’s spending the day with her mom. It isn’t necessarily her first choice of activities for a Saturday but she needs time by herself and as much as she loves Octavia, she sees so many of Bellamy’s mannerisms in his sister that she doesn’t think she can spend the whole day there. Besides, Bellamy would probably invite himself over to Octavia’s and then she would be forced to spend the day watching him play with his nephew and she’s not sure that her hormones can handle that. And she’s supposed to be going out with Octavia for a ladies night that evening so she will have plenty of time to spend with her best friend later.

* * *

Bellamy wakes up around 9 in the morning and rolls out of bed. He sees the empty bed and wonders where Clarke has gone. He knows that she came home last night because he had seen her sprawled across the bed when he had awoken in the middle of the night and needed to go to the bathroom. Despite his better instincts and judgment, he couldn’t help himself from staring at her for a few minutes, watching her back rise and fall and watching the soft blonde waves that spread across her face vibrate as she released each breath. When she muttered something in her sleep, it snapped him to his senses and he returned to the couch, tossing and turning until he decided to focus on her listening to her breathing and finally was able to fall back asleep. 

He finds her note in the kitchen and decides to use some of his time to catch up on projects in the shop. He works for several hours before texting Octavia and his mother asking if he can have lunch with his two favorite ladies. Octavia’s responds that she thinks Clarke already has plans for the day. Bellamy groans and is thankful that no one else in his the shop to notice his blush. Or his confusion. Since when does he blush over Clarke Griffin? Or any girl?

His mom’s response, happy about both his request and Octavia’s comment, reminds him that Octavia probably had only sent the text as part of this whole fake engagement façade and he becomes even more embarrassed. To distract himself, he texts Echo and asks is she wants to get together later. She quickly replies with an invitation to join her at her apartment anytime.

He leaves the store at noon and heads towards Octavia’s house. His mom is already there as Octavia is taking her to a doctor’s appointment that afternoon. He feels bad that he’s made plans with Echo instead of going to his mom’s appointment with her but he’d taken her to her other appointments earlier in the week and Octavia insists that she’s got this one. It’s at the oncologist’s second office and she insists that it will be easier for her to take Aurora than to explain to Bellamy how to get there.

He spends an hour and half with his sister, nephew, and mother before making his excuses and heading towards Echo’s apartment. She buzzes him in and opens the door in a negligee, greeting him with a deep kiss instead of words.

He leaves her apartment several hours later. She explains that she has dinner with a client that evening and he waits while she gets ready, noticing that they still seem to struggle with the conversation side of the relationship. The physical side they excel at though and they are making out in the elevator on their way to the lobby. They break apart when the doors open to the lobby and they head out the front door. They linger in front of the building for a minute, continuing to kiss teasingly before Echo finally hums that she really needs to get to her dinner. Reluctantly, Bellamy drops his hands from her waist and watches for a minute as she walks away from him. He turns and walks the opposite way. He fails to see his mother standing across the street, waiting for Octavia to bring the car around, and staring at him in horror.

* * *

Clarke heads back to the apartment to get ready for her ladies night with Octavia. She has managed to get through the day with her mother without receiving too much criticism and Clarke thinks that if this is what marriage does to her mother, than any lingering concerns she had about Marcus Kane have disappeared. She’s worried though that her mom’s good mood is more directly related to her own marriage prospects, i.e. her “engagement” to Bellamy. They spent much of the day talking about wedding details that Clarke knows will never come to fruition. She’s surprised, though, by how much fun she has in talking through these decisions with her mom. 

Bellamy isn’t in the apartment when she gets back but he is in the kitchen when she leaves the bathroom after her shower wrapped only in her towel. She notices how his eyes rake up and down her body and is happy that she is still flushed from the warm water. She grabs her dress and heads quickly back into the bathroom. 

When she comes back out in the tight dress whose shade of blue matches her eyes, she again notices Bellamy checking her out, his eyes lingering on the low cut of the dress. She quickly turns and heads towards the bed, pulling her jewelry and make-up bags from the bedside table onto the bed and sitting down to sort through them.

“So, uh, you were out late last night?” he calls from the kitchen. She’s not sure what he is doing in there except for making a racket by rummaging through some pots and pans.

“Oh yeah” she says because it sounded like he had asked a question.

“Did you have fun?” he asks.

“Yeah, I did actually.” She says because even if she had screwed up the date by talking about him too much, she had had fun with Lexa.

“Hey, I don’t know what you are planning on doing tonight but I was planning on heading to Bruno’s.” he says and she wonders what he’s doing in the kitchen if he isn’t getting ready to fix dinner.

“Oh I can’t tonight.” She says as she grabs her heels and stumbles towards the kitchen, trying to walk and pull them on at the same time.

“What, you got another date?”

“Um, actually, yeah.” She says, hoping that Octavia hadn’t told him about their ladies night plans. It’s a platonic date with her best friend/his sister but she would rather that he assumes it’s a romantic date and not that her attempt at that had failed.

“How do I look?” she says as she steps in front of him.

He has a beer to his lips and he swallows loudly before setting his beer down. “Beautiful as always, Princess.” He says a bit wistfully. She gives him a questioning look but then his phone buzzes and he is able to tear his eyes away. When he looks up again, he sees that Clarke has grabbed her bag and is already halfway to the door.

“Have fun tonight” she says, “And don’t wait up.”

Bellamy can’t contain his groan as the door shuts behind her. He chugs the rest of his beer, tosses the bottle in the recycling and then grabs his keys, switching off the lights as he leaves the apartment to head to his mom’s house. He needs something to distract himself.

* * *

As Bellamy approaches his childhood home, he hears Marcus calling him from next door. 

“I didn’t expect to see you over here tonight.” Marcus says from his front porch.

“I just thought I’d spend the evening with my mom.” Bellamy replies.

Marcus gives him a puzzled look. “But she’s over at your sister’s for Clarke’s engagement party.”

Bellamy is confused for a minute because Clarke said that she had a date but he doesn’t really have time to think about it before Marcus is insisting that he come and sit with him on his porch. Bellamy takes a seat and they are silent for a bit, listening to the sounds of the city around them. Eventually Marcus breaks the silence. “Bellamy, I care about you, you know that right?”

Marcus was a fixture in their lives even before Jake Griffin had died and he’s been living with Abby in the house next to Aurora’s for the past 3 years. Marcus has always been a sort of father figure to Bellamy and so he says “Of course, Marcus. Why would you think I don’t know that?”

“I just wanted to make sure.” He lapses into silence again. A minute passes before he says “Are you happy?”

“What do you mean? Like, with school?”

“No, I mean with Clarke.” Bellamy is silent for a minute and is about to respond when Marcus continues. “Does she make you happy? And I don’t mean is the sex good?” Bellamy lets out a strangled sound but Marcus continues “I mean, does she make you laugh? Do you fight a lot about unnecessary things or is it mostly good?

“You know, I have to say, it’s been mostly good. I mean we fight but…”

“Listen, kiddo, if you’re married, you’re going to fight. The secret is knowing how to fight. You think being married is easy? It’s hard enough living with your own insecurities. Things haven’t always great with me and Abby but even in the bad times, I’ve loved her and I’m so happy that we’re married. You need to be with person who chooses to laugh at the absurdity of it all. Abby is that person for me. Is Clarke that person?” Marcus pauses, looking over at Bellamy who is nodding his head. “Bellamy, what I mean is, can you be yourself around Clarke?

“I guess if I’m really honest about it,” he says “I’m more comfortable around Clarke Griffin than just about anyone.”

“That’s how you know she’s the one.”

* * *

Clarke meets Octavia at some fancy cocktail bar that she’s never been to before. Octavia already has a booth when Clarke enters and she waves her over. She isn’t even there 30 seconds when a waiter arrives and deposits two drinks in front of them. 

“I ordered for you.” Octavia explains and Clarke nods, picking up the drink and sipping it. “I thought if I liquored you up, I might be able to get all the details on your date with Lexa.”

Clarke knows that Octavia knows how she feels about Bellamy but she doesn’t want to admit to that being the reason that her date with Lexa wasn’t going to go anywhere. And she’s pretty sure that even though the two women know each other, Lexa isn’t going to tell Octavia that part of the story either. So instead, she says “I don’t know, O, it was weird. It feels a little inappropriate to be dating when I’m working for my fake fiancée’s mother and our parents are planning our wedding.”

“On that, can I just ask you a question: why are you torturing yourself? You don’t need to be here for this. I kind of understand keeping up the farce for my mom but you don’t need to be here for it. You can go back to LA and leave Bellamy here to play fake engagement by himself.”

Clarke is silent for a moment. “I know this might sound weird, but in a way, living with Bellamy has shown me what I ultimately want in a relationship.” She says, then adds “I’m really starting to miss the sex though.”

“Oh honey” Octavia says and Clarke can’t stand the pity in her eyes. Fortunately, a cell phone begins to ring and the pity look is replaced with one of panic as Octavia digs through her bag, looking for her phone.

“Shit” Octavia says as she dumps the purse on the table. “I think I left my cell phone at home. What if Lincoln calls about Kai?” she says when it becomes clear that there isn’t a phone amongst her belongings.

Clarke assumes that Lincoln knows that Octavia is with her and could just call her phone but she also knows that pointing this out will not actually stop Octavia from fretting. And while she’s been enjoying her cocktail, she’s sure from the décor that it costs far more than is necessary and if she wants to drink more, she can just make herself a drink at Octavia’s house. She says as much to Octavia who smiles at her in relief and flags down the waiter to get the bill.

They arrive at Octavia’s house within a half hour. Octavia pushes Clarke through the door first which Clarke thinks is unusual until she enters the living room and sees a small crowd of women who beam brightly at her and shout “Surprise.”

Clarke is startled and turns towards Octavia who is beaming from ear to ear. Octavia leans over to whisper into Clarke’s ear. “I figured if you had to go through all the bad parts of being engaged, you might as well get to experience the good parts too.”

Clarke isn’t able to respond before she is swept up in a tight hug by her mother who releases her and pushes her into Aurora’s waiting arms. After Aurora, she is hugged by woman after woman. She didn’t think she knew this many people in Chicago and there are a few faces in the crowd that she doesn’t even recognize. As one of these strangers releases her after announcing that she’s Aurora’s cousin, Clarke turns and finds herself face to face with Indra and Lexa. Indra doesn’t hug her but extends her hand for a shake and Clarke looks at Lexa who steps forward to hug her. Clarke is sure that there is panic in her face because she purposefully had not brought this situation up with Lexa on their date. As they hug though, Lexa whispers in her ear. “Octavia told me about the fake engagement.” Clarke tenses but Lexa continues. “Don’t worry, no one else knows.” Clarke nods as she pulls back and she can see that the other woman finds this situation quite humorous. Well, she had already figured out that Clarke had unresolved feelings for Bellamy and now she knows that they were in a fake relationship. Clarke figures that it might be amusing to others even if it wasn’t to her. She can admit to the ridiculousness of the situation though.

After she had greets all the party guests, she is pulled further into the living room and is seated in a chair. Her mom places a tiara with a veil on her head and most of the guests giggle and start to find their own seats. There are platters of food on all the tables and Clarke can see a bar at the other side of the room. She isn’t sure that she’ll be allowed to get up and get a drink but thankfully, before she has to rudely cut off one of her mom’s friends who is trying to find out more about how Bellamy proposed, Octavia appears at her side with a glass of champagne in her hand. She hands it over to Clarke with a wink and Clarke begins to relax with the knowledge that that wink signifies that Octavia will be keeping her glass full.

The engagement party is actually going pretty well. Everyone seems to be getting along and Octavia has been keeping Clarke’s champagne flute full. She’s happily buzzed with Aurora announces that it’s time for presents and everyone sits down. Octavia hands her present after present and she’s received several bottles of wine, a wedding planner, a box of chocolates, a picture frame that says “Mr. and Mrs.,” and a ring dish. She’s starting to feel embarrassed at all the gifts when this isn’t a real engagement. And then she picks up a bag and looks at the tag. It’s signed “Best of luck, Lexa” with a winky face. Clarke announces who the gift is from and finds the other woman’s face, smirking at her from the couch. Clarke opens the bag and looks in and can feel her face flushing. She doesn’t think there is any way that she can avoid sharing the present with the others though and so she sucks it up and pulls the lingerie out of the bag. It’s a black corset with molded cups and built in boning. The corset has hooks and eyes down the front and garters hang from the front and back. There is also matching panties and black sheer thigh highs with lace tops.

Lacking anything else to say, Clarke attempts to lighten the situation with humor. “Finally, something practical!” she says as she holds up the corset. Octavia wolf whistles from across the room and most of the women in the room giggle. She looks at Lexa again and the woman raises her eyebrows and mouths “Put it to good use.” Clarke quickly looks away and grabs the last present, grateful that Lexa’s wasn’t the last one and she has something to redirect everyone’s attention to. The last gift is from her mother and it’s a wedding scrapbook. She opens it to find that her mother has already filled the first few pages of pictures of Clarke and Bellamy growing up. They’d lived on the same street since Clarke was six, Octavia was five and Bellamy was nine and Clarke is filled with warmth looking at pictures of them throughout the years.

She can’t remain distracted by the scrapbook for long though before someone shouts out, demanding to know the story of how they started dating. Everyone becomes quiet and looks expectantly at Clarke. 

“He was already set up in LA when I got there. So I tagged along with him to a few parties and one thing led to another.” She says simply.

“That’s it?!” One of her cousins says. “We want details!”

“Yeah, like when did you know you were going to marry him?” one of her mother’s friends asks.

“When he took you away for your first romantic weekend?” asks one guest.

“The first time you _slept_ together?” asks another.

Clarke nearly swallows her tongue because she hasn’t slept slept with Bellamy and the thought of doing so is a bit too much, especially after the amount of champagne she’s consumed. Everyone is looking at her and she decides to answer the question truthfully. “Actually, when we first slept together, I was seven and he was ten.” 

Several of her cousins say “ew” in unison while others are giving her a quizzical look.

“It was at Octavia’s sixth birthday party.” She explains. “And it was my first sleepover party and I was scared so he slept in the living room with us.”

Several people awww in response to the story but Clarke can tell that she hasn’t appeased them.

“Come on Clarke, you are not getting off that easy. Bellamy has always been a player. How did you tame him?” Her cousin pleads.

“It’s like you guys all see this ladies man or something. But underneath the tight tees and muscles, he’s really just a big dork.” She pauses. “He’s one of the most generous, kind, giving people I’ve ever met. I can’t imagine spending my life with anyone else.” As the words roll out of her mouth she realizes that they’re true and everyone is giggling with delight so she is able to stand and walk towards the kitchen. When she slips through the door, Octavia follows her and rubs small circles into the base of her neck.

Meanwhile, Bellamy, had arrived at Octavia’s house. The windows were open and as he had stepped on the porch, he’d heard Clarke’s last statement. At first, the words had him smiling widely but then he started to think. _Was she just saying this because it is what they expected to hear? If she really meant it, is it what he wants to hear?_ He doesn’t know and instead of walking into the house, he steps back off the porch and walks down to the end of the street. He’s pacing back and forth and trying to sort out what is happening when he notices that there is a steady trickle of women leaving his sister’s house. He walks around to the backyard and slips in through the backdoor. His sister is alone in the kitchen, packing up the gifts into a box and she gives him a wicked grin. He tries to smile at her but he knows it comes off strained when she gives him a weird look. He doesn’t say anything and just reaches around her to help her put the last of the gift bags in the box. He then grabs the box and pushes his way into the front room, smiling at Clarke who is hugging one of the last departing women. She holds his gaze for a minute and then turns towards their mothers who are standing in front of the couch with twin looks of adoration on their faces. Clarke goes to hug them, thanking them both for the party and then she’s hugging Octavia.

“Do you ladies need a ride home?” Bellamy asks his mom and Abby but Abby shakes her head.

“I’m driving us home. Just take care of yourselves.” Abby says stepping forward and practically pushing them out the door. Clarke leads the way down the path towards the car they’ve been borrowing and opens the trunk for Bellamy to put the box in. Wordlessly, the both get in the car and let the radio fill the silence on the short drive home.

They don’t speak until they are back in the apartment and Bellamy is dropping the box on the kitchen table while Clarke kicks off her heels and collapses on the couch. 

“So how was your fake bridal shower?” He asks as he drops onto the couch next to her. Despite the couch being quite long, his thigh is pressed up against hers and she can barely focus on answering his question.

“I was informed that it was actually just an engagement party” she says. “And actually, it was a lot of fun.”

“Yeah?” he says, looking up at her and trying to figure out if that statement means anything more than that she did, actually, have fun.

His eyes keep circling her face and when his gaze drops to her lips and he slips his tongue out to wet his own, Clarke makes a decision.

“Do you want to see the best thing I got?” she asks.

“Yeah, of course.” He says. Clarke leans towards him to push herself off the couch and it is hard for him not to stare down her dress when it is only inches from his face. But then she is standing and walking away from him and he leans back on the couch, trying to get his breathing under control. He hears her fumbling around the bags in the box and then she calls out “One minute” and slips into the bathroom.

He finally thinks he has his thoughts under control when the bathroom door opens a crack and Clarke says “Ok. Close your eyes.”

“Really?” he asks, though he’s already covering his eyes with his hands.

“Yes” she says and she steps out of the bathroom and walks towards the couch. 

“OK” he says and he feels her hand on his shoulder.

“OK” she repeats and he drops his hands and opens his eyes. And he stops breathing.

Clarke is standing in front of him in a black corset, black panties, and sheer black thigh high garters. And suddenly his breath is back but it’s uneven and his mouth is dry but he can’t seem to close his mouth. And then she spins and he’s able to close his mouth and swallow loudly.

“Do you like it?” she asks as she spins.

Bellamy tries to come up with a response but his brain cannot form words and he just opens and closes his mouth several times. He isn’t sure what the proper response is to this situation. This is his little sister’s best friend. They had dragged him prom dress shopping with them to get his opinion. Was this the same thing? Just asking his opinion? Or was this something more?

In order to prevent himself from doing something that they both might regret, he reaches his hand up and points at the garter at the back of her right thigh. “Your, uh, your thing is, ummm, it’s undone.” He says ineloquently.

Clarke peers over her shoulder and sees that the garter is no longer hooked to the thigh high. She reaches down to try to hook it. “It keeps doing that.” She mumbles as she tries to fix it. Then she turns around, placing her ass within inches of Bellamy’s face and she’s asking him if he can fix it.

He can’t have his face this close to her round ass and so even though it is not a good angle for fixing the garter, he stands and reaches down. “I can try.” He says as his fingers brush against the soft skin of the back of Clarke’s thigh and a shiver passes through both of their bodies. He’s fumbling with the garter when Clarke reaches back and pulls the garter from his hand and then slowly turns, looking up at him. Her face is mere inches from hers and she lifts her hands and places them one on his chest and one on his bicep and even through the fabric, he is skin becomes hot at the contact. She looks up at him and then at his lips and back to his eyes and then he sees her give a slight nod and he surges down to kiss her.

Their lips meet and immediately her lips are parting for his tongue and it is slow and tender and yet powerful. Her arms move to wrap around his neck and her fingers twine into the curls at the base. He wraps his arms around her waist and pulls her towards him until their bodies are crushed together. He turns them slightly and neither is sure if he pulls or she pushes but they fall back onto the couch and he’s sitting up and she’s straddling his lap and the kisses are become more needy and their hands are traveling over parts of each other that they’ve never explored despite the thousands of times that they’ve previously touched.

And then Bellamy is pulling away from the kiss.

“Clarke” he says roughly “Clarke, I can’t. I can’t do this.”

She looks at him and sees her desire matched in his gaze. “Yeah you can. I want you too.

“You’re sure?”

“No strings” she says as she pulls him back in for another kiss. He surges forward then, pushing her back into the couch, exploring her mouth and then breaking away and pressing hot kisses down the slope of her neck. He feels her wrap her legs around his back and lock her ankles and he pushes his hands under her back and rocks back, pulling her with him and pushing himself to his knees and then his feet, holding her wrapped around his waist as he turns and carries her to the bed. He lays her back gently on the bed and her hands find the bottom of his shirt and she starts to tug. He lifts his weight off of her enough to pull the shirt up and over his head and off his arms. And then he’s pressing her down into the bed again, relishing the feel of her chest heaving beneath him.

* * *

The next morning, Clarke thinks that she’s the first to wake. When she opens her eyes, she realizes that her cheek is pressed into Bellamy’s bare chest and her arm is wrapped around his waist. She decides not to move immediately, relishing in the sense of Bellamy’s chest rising and falling beneath her. She moves her hand lightly across his chest and his breathing changes and she looks up and she’s that his eyes are wide open, looking clearly at her and not blinking away sleep as she had expected. She grins up at him and a wide smile fills his face. She pulls herself up so that she has a better view of his face. Despite their year’s of friendship, she’s never had this type of access to Bellamy’s face and she’s always wanted to count his freckles and draw constellations between them.

“Hi” she says shyly.

“Hi” he says back before leaning forward to press a soft kiss to her lips.

She had thought that this morning might be awkward and that what they had last night would be a one-time thing. But it appears that Bellamy is interested in continuing what they started last night and she’s not going to say no, so she just leans into the kiss and enjoys herself.

A little while later, they are sitting at the kitchen table, chairs pressed close together so that Clarke’s legs rest on top of Bellamy’s. They are leaning into each other, stealing kisses in between bites of their breakfast.

“You know what I was thinking?” Clarke asks as Bellamy’s lips leave hers and start trailing down her neck.

“Mmmppfff?” is his reply and she shoves him back lightly.

“Even rabbits take a break, Bellamy.” She says with a laugh and he practically pouts as he sits back in his chair. He grabs her foot and starts absently rubbing it.

“Well we have to do something to show that we are moving forward with the wedding, right?” She says, relaxing back and enjoying the sensation of Bellamy’s massage.

“Right.” He agrees.

“I mean there are a million details to a wedding. Everything has to be looked at, has to be signed off on. I was thinking it would be kind of fun if we let our parents do all the dull stuff and we just did the fun stuff.”

“What could possibly be fun about planning a wedding?” he says, switching to her other foot.

Clarke grabs her lower lip in her teeth and just raises her eyebrows at him.

It’s her silent challenge that finds them two hours later at the Macy’s on the Magnificent Mile, walking around with scanner guns and creating the world’s most ridiculous wedding registry. They’ve been trying to out do each other in finding a combination of incredibly expensive, terribly garish, and/or completely impractical items. Clarke has also been scanning in reasonable items as well because she’s a sensible person and their parents may actually look at this registry at some point.

“How far do you think the scanner can reach?” Bellamy asks.

“I don’t know” Clarke says, turning to him, about to suggest that he put it to the test only to realize that his hands are empty.

“Where’s your scanner?” she asks. He reaches down to the bottom of his shirt and hooks his fingers around the edge, pulling it up slowly to reveal the scanner wedged into the side of his jeans. Her mouth goes dry and she has to drag her eyes away from the muscles beautifully sculpted over his hip. When she looks back up at him, he’s smirking. She rolls her eyes at him and turns to walk away. He quickly catches up to her though, now with his scanner in his hand and stops her.

“I bet you ten dollars I can scan that wine rack from here, Princess.” He says, pointing at the wooden rack about 5 feet in front of them.

“You’re on.” She says and steps up behind him so that her breasts are pressed against his back. His breath catches but he steadies himself and presses down the scanner and then there is a beep as the item’s description appears on the small screen on each of their scanners. 

“You own me ten dollars!” he says, spinning around and waving the scanner in her face.

“You cheated!” she shouts.

“How could I cheat?” he counters.

“Double or nothing I can hit anything you name within a ten foot radius.” She challenges and Bellamy smirks again before spinning around and looking for an item with a visible but not particularly accessible barcode.

“Purple comforter set, top row.” He says, pointing to

“I think that’s more than 10 feet away” she says.

“Scared you can’t do it, Princess?” he taunts and he sees anger and concentration take over her face as she turns towards the wall of bedding. She adjusts her stance, slowly bringing up the scanner upwards and aiming it like it is a real gun. She slows her breathing and can see the red light reflecting on the plastic covering and then she hears the beep indicating a successful scan. She shouts in success and spins around, about to throw her arms around Bellamy’s neck. But she sees that he is looking behind her and she turns as she hears a female voice call out his name.

“Hey, Echo” Bellamy says with an awkward laugh.

“Sorry to interrupt” says Echo, “I’m just on my way out.”

“No, it’s fine.” Bellamy says, looking awkwardly over at Clarke.

“Yeah, no, it’s fine. I’ll just be…uh, over in the lingerie section.” Clarke says before spinning on her heel and marching away. She only makes it around the nearest corner though and stops. She can see them through the stacks of clothes and but she can’t hear their conversation.

Bellamy reaches forward to hug Echo and she leaves her hands on his waist. They continue chatting for a bit before Echo’s hand slides from Bellamy’s waist to give his ass a little squeeze. Clarke is so focused on shooting them a dirty look that she jumps when her phone starts to ring.

_Bum da ba um, ba da ba bum_

She looks at the screen and sees that it is her mom calling. She thinks she can’t possibly feel worse than she already does and she needs a distraction so she answers it.

“Where are you?” Abby practically hisses after Clarke’s greeting.

“I’m shopping with Bellamy. Why? Where am I supposed to be?”

“You’re supposed to be at the caterers with us.” Abby says and Clarke groans. She vaguely remembers her mom telling her about this last night.

“Shit. Sorry. We’ll be there as soon as we can.” Clarke says before ending the call and coming back around the corner. Thankfully, Echo has left and Bellamy is standing awkwardly alone. She huffs up to him and tells him they need to get to the catering appointment.

* * *

After a nearly silent and mostly awkward train ride, Clarke and Bellamy arrive at the caterers. All three of their parents are there, already seated and waiting for the food so they slip into their seats in silence. Both make generic comments on the food as they sample the appetizers and main course. Aurora also remains quiet through most of the meal and Abby keeps asking her if she feels OK. Aurora insists that she’s fine and Abby lets it go just as the waiters approach with cake samples.

The waiter places a plate down on the table that has two small cakes on it. “These” he says, “are two of our signature cakes. We’ve found the grooms are usually more invested in this decision so we like to call this part ‘The Groom’s Dilemma.’ One is a traditional chocolate with raspberry filling and chocolate ganache and the other is a vanilla cake soaked in lime simple syrup and filled with passion fruit curd. Which will he choose?”

“I think I want both” Bellamy says. 

Aurora snaps her head around to stare at him. “You can’t have both. You have to commit to one or the other.”

There is a palpable tension in the room and the waiter attempts to break it with a nervous laugh. “You can have both.” He says.

“Some dilemma” Aurora mutters as the waiter starts passing plates of the cake samples down the table. Clarke helps to pass the plates but she’s not focused on the process. When there are no more plates to pass, she looks down at her lap and starts to twirl the engagement band around her finger.

She looks up at Bellamy just as he puts the fork into his mouth and he moans at the taste. It’s similar to his moans from the night before and it’s the last straw for Clarke.

“I can’t do this anymore.” She says, pushing back from the table.

Bellamy just stares for a second and it’s Abby who grabs Clarke’s arm as she’s standing and asks “What do you mean?”

Clarke can’t stand to look at Bellamy again and so she looks at Aurora. “I’m sorry, but the engagement’s off.” She says and twists her arm free from her mother’s grasp before spinning around and running towards the door.

Bellamy breaks out of his daze and stands to follow her. “I’m sorry. Just give me a minute.” He says as he leaves the table.

By the time he gets outside, Clarke is already halfway into a cab. “Clarke, wait, wait, wait.” He says, grabbing her arm and turning her towards him.

“Please let me go.” She pleads as she stands in the door of the cab.

“Not until you tell me what’s going on.” He responds. “What is this about? Is this about running into Echo?”

“No, it’s not about Echo!” She yells because it isn’t really about Echo. 

“Is it about last night?” he asks, a bit more softly.

“No” she says again.

“Clarke, we can talk about it.” He pleads. “Can’t we talk? I mean, our parents are in there.”

 _Of course that’s what he is most upset about_ , she thinks, _their parents_. She knows that she should be concerned too, especially given Aurora’s situation. And she should just never have agreed to this in the first place. But she’s here now and she’s upset and she can’t keep doing this to herself. And she can’t lie to him anymore either.

“Bellamy, I’m in love with you.”

He appears stunned by her announcement and she uses it to her advantage, shoving him back from the taxi, twisting off the ring and thrusting it into his hand before diving into the back seat and slamming the door shut.

Bellamy remains stunned for several seconds before waving down his own cab. He’s not sure how to deal with Clarke’s announcement but he knows he can’t deal with it and deal with their parents alone.

He doesn’t turn around as his cab leaves and so he doesn’t see Marcus running out of the restaurant to catch him and tell him that Aurora collapsed.

* * *

Clarke arrives at Octavia’s door with tear tracks down her face. Octavia opens the door and pulls her into a tight hug. “I told him I loved him” she mumbles and Octavia squeezes tighter. 

“If he didn’t immediately say it back, he’s an idiot.” Octavia says and pulls Clarke into the house. “What finally made you admit it?”

Clarke flushes. “It’s a long story.”

“You slept with him, didn’t you?”

Clarke attempts to scoff but she’s known Octavia most of her life and she knows that she can’t keep anything from her. “Yeah…but it wasn’t anything. For him, I mean. He’s still hooking up with Echo too.”

“He’s an idiot.” Octavia says again. Just then, Lincoln comes into the room, holding his cell phone in one hand and Kai in the other.

“Octavia” he says softly, “Abby just called, your mom collapsed and they are on their way to the hospital.”

Octavia gasps and Clarke lets out a wet sob: “Oh god, this is my fault.”

“This is not your fault” Octavia says fiercely before she starts rushing around the room, grabbing her things. “Lincoln, you’ve got Kai, right? Clarke and I need to get to the hospital.”

“Yeah, we’re fine. Go.” He says, leaning forward and pressing his lips to her before pushing her out the door.

* * *

Bellamy lifts his arm and raps on the door. A few moments later it opens and Echo’s face lights up when she sees him. Then she notices his expression. “It looks like you need a cocktail” she says. 

“We need to talk” he says, walking into her apartment.

He settles onto her couch while she pours him a whiskey and before she even sits herself, he starts telling her about what happened at the caterer.

“She told you she loves you?” Echo asks, but doesn’t pause for an answer before adding “Any idea what broke the dam?”

Bellamy just looks at her with a puzzled expression. She doesn’t seem upset by his news or even surprised.

“We, um, we may have…we slept together.” Bellamy says shamefully.

“Yeah, well, I don’t think you’re the first man to have slept with his fiancée.” Echo says teasingly.

Bellamy grimaces. “I’m sorry” he says and tries to continue but Echo cuts him off.

“Bellamy, we’re friends with benefits. One of the benefits is that you don’t owe me an explanation. And I kind of thought this might happen.”

“How could you have seen this coming?” he asks, rubbing his face.

“I’ve seen the way she looks at you.” Echo says and then adds, “I’ve also seen the way you look at her. I should never have gotten between that but…”

Bellamy just stares at her with an incredulous expression.

“Do you know how you feel about her?” Echo asks.

“I don’t know.” He says and pauses for a minute, thinking about it. “I’ve known her most of my life. She was just a little blonde hurricane, annoying me for most of it. I thought…I thought that’s what she still was. And yet” he pauses. “I don’t want to be with anybody else, except that little blonde terror.”

“Well you’ve got to tell her.” Echo says. Bellamy realizes that yes, that is exactly what he needs to do. He stands to take his leave of Echo and feels his phone vibrate for what must be at least the fifth time. He had hoped maybe it was Clarke calling and he hadn’t been ready to deal with that so he’d just ignored it. Now he is really hoping it is Clarke and pulls his phone out of his pocket. He sees that it is Marcus calling him though and doesn’t answer the phone fast enough. Then he sees that all of his missed calls are from Marcus and he also has a text message that reads “Call me ASAP.”

* * *

Clarke and Octavia arrive at the hospital and immediately rush into the emergency area. Marcus is waiting for them and leads them back to Aurora’s room. Being neighbors with Abby Griffin, head of surgery, has its perks like not having to wait in the emergency room and receiving immediate care. 

Abby is checking Aurora’s charts when they enter the room and Octavia immediately runs to her mom’s side.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” Octavia asks.

“Don’t worry. It was just dehydration.” Abby says. “We’ve got her hooked up to fluids and she’ll be right as rain soon.”

Clarke is in medical school and she grew up with a doctor for a mother so she knows that she couldn’t have caused Aurora’s dehydration. But that doesn’t stop her from blaming this whole situation on herself which is why she positions herself on the other side of Aurora’s bed and says “I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.”

“This is not your fault. I know why you called off the engagement.” Aurora says from the bed and Clarke looks at her in shock.

“You…you do?” She asks.

“I saw Bellamy with that other woman.” Aurora says, reaching up and taking Clarke’s hand. “I thought I raised him better than that. I’m so sorry.”

“Oh, Mrs. Blake, no. I’m sorry. We, uh, we haven’t been totally honest with you.” Clarke is about to tell Aurora the whole story when Bellamy bursts through the door.

“Mom!” he says in relief as he sees her in bed.

“Don’t mom me, Bellamy” Aurora says, “I know you are cheating on Clarke.”

“Mom, is that why you collapsed?” he asks sullenly.

“Technically she’s here because of dehydration” Abby says, “but I’m sure that the added stress of her knowing that you were cheating on _MY_ daughter has not been helping her.”

“Shit” Bellamy says, running his hands through his hair. “I’m sorry about all of this. But, Clarke and I aren’t really engaged.”

There’s a moment of silence where everyone just keeps glancing from person to person and everyone is sending death glares towards Bellamy. Octavia breaks the silence: “Bellamy, you’re such an ass.” she says. “I can’t believe you slept with her. You can’t just use her and leave her like all your other girls. ”

“It’s not like that, O” he says.

“Oh yeah, well then what’s it like?” she counters.

“I…I...I love her!” he shouts.

Clarke spins around to look at him. “You love me?” she says softly.

Bellamy takes a step towards her. “Yeah, I do.”

Clarke steps towards him. His breath catches as she reaches her arms forward but then she’s shoving at his chest and he’s so surprised that he just starts moving backwards. He takes two steps back and is in the hallway and Clarke spins around and slams the hospital room door shut before he can even react. He stands in dumbfounded silence for a moment before he knocks on the door.

“Clarke, can I come back in?” he asks through the door.

The door slowly opens and Clarke is standing sheepishly in the frame. She won’t raise her eyes to meet his. He takes a slow step forward. “Clarke…”

“I’m sorry. I have no idea why I did that.” She mumbles, still not looking up at him.

“It’s my fault. This whole thing is my fault really” he says and she looks up at him. Her expression is a bit hopeful and her blue eyes are glistening. “I’m sorry I’ve fucked this up. But, I know that I love you. I’m _in_ love with you. And it’s not because of my mom, not because of this whole fake engagement thing. It’s because I can’t imagine my life without you.”

Clarke just continues to look at him with wide eyes and says “Yeah?”

“Yeah. I mean, I’m not saying we should we keep planning this wedding because that would be a bit weird, right?” he says, even though he’s already pretty sure that that diamond ring will be hers again someday. But it’s weird to get engaged to someone you haven’t been dating and have only been fake engaged to for a couple of weeks. “I just think, you know, that we should date. Each other. And no one else.”

“I could do that.” She says shyly, stepping forward just as he does and then they are reaching for each other, wrapping their arms around one another, pressing their bodies and lips together.

Octavia lets out a whoop that breaks them apart and they turn around to see their mothers with tears in their eyes.

“You’re not mad?” Bellamy asks his mom.

“As long as you’re happy.” She says and he looks down at Clarke.

“Yeah, I’m happy.”

* * *

Epilogue: 

Clarke and Bellamy return to Los Angeles the next week in order to get ready for the school year. Octavia and Abby assure them that they can take care of Aurora and that they return to school. They’re both a bit worried about how they’ll handle this whole dating thing in LA but they find it is surprisingly easy to make time for each other despite their busy schedules. They are both able to take long breaks over Christmas and fly back to Chicago. Which is both good and sad because Aurora has at-home hospice care and this is surely her last holiday season. Their families spend Christmas and New Years together and Aurora passes away just a few days later. Both Bellamy and Octavia fall apart but Clarke and Abby (and Marcus) are there to help. They reluctantly return to LA the second week of January and Bellamy is still incredibly distraught. Clarke takes to spending all of her time at his apartment and it isn’t until March that she realizes that she has basically moved in. She doesn’t know what to say about it but Bellamy brings it up one Saturday morning, asking her when her lease is up and if she officially wants to live together. 

He gives her the ring again exactly one year to the day that he gave it to her the first time. He says he knows it is still pretty quick but they’ve know each other practically their whole lives and he’s sure that she’s the one. She lets him get his whole speech out before she tackles him and says yes.

It’s another year before they are married and two more before they have their first child. A daughter they name Daphne Aurora.

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written fan fiction since Harry Potter over five years ago and I've never shared that publicly. I've got an original college AU in the works too so expect that sometime soon. I hope you enjoy!
> 
> You can find me on tumblr at Ottersandotherstuff.


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